Cuteness Proximity - Television Tropes & Idioms

Yes you are! And you're sitting there! Hi, kitty!

You have a character who's a normal, perfectly sensible, maybe even slightly uptight person. Then they are presented with a puppy/kitten/baby/whatever, and they suddenly disintegrate into a pile of gloop, going "Whosa cutie? Whosa cutie? You are, you are, yes you are. Da cute widdle thing you are, you... (devolves into gibberish)".

Dignity goes flying out the window. Often strikes the Un Funny, helping to make them seem Not So Above It All. Also a good way to show that a Bad Ass character is a big softie at heart.

Definitely Truth In Television. See also Everythings Cuter With Kittens.

Examples:

Advertising

Several years back, there was an ad campaign for Beggin' Strips dog treats that had several people giving the treats to their pets. As their dogs cutely ate them, they basically dissolved into baby-talk and cute overload.

Anime and Manga

Occurred during the Bount arc in the anime version of Bleach. When a decision needed to be made about which person each of the three mod souls would be paired with, Rukia (the possessor of a long standing rabbit obsession) positively melted over the plushie (a rabbit-like purse) inhabited by Kurodo.
- Let's not forget the scene where Ishida Uryuu was giggling over a butterfly that randomly flew by. Surprisingly not as out of character as one might think.
Roy Mustang apparently had this occur over dogs. Also, Al's reaction to kittens, while in character, probably counts, especially as he looks scary.
Rena Ryuuguu is like this to damn near anything she thinks is the least bit cute (whether it actually is or not), going so far as having a mindset that involves this phenomenon, often triggered with her Catch Phrase of "I want to take it home!" You do not want to be in Rena's way when she's in Im Taking Her Home With Me mode.
Sakaki, over pretty much anything. Unfortunately the animals involved REALLY don't appreciate it. Also, she can be internally overwhelmed by all the cuteness, but all the other girls can see is a blushing Huge Schoolgirl.
Shinra, dignified Kuudere mistress of They Are My Noble Masters melts into a Squeeing ditz at the mere sight of baby pandas.
Bad Ass Demon Butler Sebastian in Kuroshitsuji adores cats.
In Axis Powers Hetalia, male Tsundere England is often the Only Sane Man. But he's got the ability to see supernatural creatures, and when a sweet-tempered one approachs him, his deredere side arises and he acts very gentle to them. And since he's the only one who can see them, his friends/rivals/enemies think he has finally gone off the deep end. (Though France's reaction when he does get to see them is priceless)
Miu Fuurinji and Kisara Nanjo in Kenichi The Mightiest Disciple absolutely adore cats. Kisara especially to the extent that she adapts cat-based movements into her Tae Kwon Do fighting style, which another character promptly calls Nya Kwon Do.
Oboro Kashiwagi in Zettai Karen Children really likes baby seals.
Kaido Kaoru of The Prince Of Tennis. While he doesn't quite "disintegrate into a pile of gloop," the most antisocial member of the team attempting to play with a cat while still coming off as intense and a little scary was hilarious in its own right.
Rah Xephon's Haruka Shitow takes all but two seconds to shift from, "One more step and I'll shoot!" to "Daaaaaw, it's so CUTE! can we keep it? Pwetty pwease?" upon encountering a stray cat in the third episode.
- An especially good scene, because in those two seconds she mentally jumps 12 years back in time... And into a completely different dynamic. Ayato has NO idea what's going on
Touka from Utawarerumono, melts when the weasel... rabbit... Nidoran thing that lives with Aruru gets near and does a poor job disguising it.
Speaking of Pokemon, Misty slips into this when a stray Teddiursa wanders into their camp and looks her in the eyes. Of course, once they find out it's been scarfing down all their food behind their backs and making Ash's Totodile take the heat for it, the little thing seems much less cute.
- The other girls have their moments too — May over a Skitty and Dawn for Pachirisu. Jesse was charmed by the cuteness of both as well, though failed to get either Pokemon.
Konoe Tsurugi, normally a stoic bad-ass that speaks in a deep and quiet scary tone, starts gushing whenever she sees a puppy. She eventually gets her own.
In Lucky Star, Kagami admits that she gets this way around goldfish. Konata immediately mocks her for it.
One Piece. The Kyuun Spark (3:58). 'nuff said.
Parodied, to an extent, by the Puchuus in Excel Saga
Yuno of Hidamari Sketch stops in the scavenger hunt to pet the dog, and even petted drawing brushes when she thought of the animals the bristles came from.

Film

In Shrek, the Genre Savvy Puss in Boots is fully aware of this trope and is quick to use it to his advantage.
- This backfires when he tries to use it when he and Donkey have their bodies exchanged.

Literature

In The Dresden Files, the Archive is the anthropomorphic personification of human knowledge. She possesses the combined memories of all previous Archives, not to mention everything ever recorded by humanity. She is articulate, mature and scarily powerful, and when she states that if Dresden backs out of his duel she'll take it personally and kill him, Dresden realizes she is fully capable of doing so without breaking a sweat. But when Dresden's cat Mister suddenly appears, she shouts "KITTY!" and starts playing with him, making you realize she's still a 7-year-old girl.
- Her bodyguard's reaction to this: "Now that is scary."
- Mister is the size of a small tiger, and isn't above pushing Harry around, but he seems to quite like Ivy. Maybe a little of this goes both ways.
In Discworld, Lord Vetinari's usually very reserved aunt Lady Roberta Meserole does this whenever her lapcat is around - as does Vetinari with his own dog to a lesser extent.
- Nanny Ogg as well.

Live Action TV

Arrogant, Narcissistic painter Olivier in Six Feet Under turns to pudding when he meet Brendas baby.
On Scrubs, Kelso laughs at Elliot's attempts to be unfeminine by saying that as soon as the "stork comes calling" she'll be gushing "look at the baby!" like all of the other female doctors in OB/GYN and Pediatrics. She denies it, but when she actually sees the baby...
- The same thing happens in a later episode when she and her friend Melody are shrieking with joy (to such a degree that in J.D.'s fantasy they are actually blowing people away). Showing them a picture of Turk's daughter Izzy immediately turns their screams into "Aww"s.
Stephen Colbert normally hates and fears ~~bears~~ The Godless Killing Machines, but pictures of cute little bear cubs invariably send him into hopeless Baby Talk. An attempt to de-cuteinize one cub failed when putting the cub's face on bin Laden's body just made terrorism adorable.
We're not exactly sure how to spell the string of gibberish that Burt Campbell spouted off whenever he was faced with his granddaughter Wendy on Soap. The letter "L" would definitely be used heavily, though.
The straight-laced businessmen on The Fast Show who get soppy over calenders with cute puppies on them and excited when they're allowed into the cockpit of a plane.
Spock was totally unaffected by tribbles. Just ask him.
Leo distracts Margaret with this in The West Wing.
Margaret: "Did you tell the Counsel's office that they would be in on the 10 o'clock?"
Leo: "I may have."
Margaret: *miffed* "That's really something that you want to tell me."
Leo: *showing photograph* "Here, it's a baby and a new mother. Look at that for a minute."
Margaret: *reacts in traditional manner*

Professional Wrestling

Lucy the Bulldog. She was the pet of Triple H, and he walks on screen, picks her up above his head, and says something along the lines of "Schnuzzywuzzywoofle". Funnier than it sounds. Woulda been even funnier if Lucy hadn't been upstaging the guy HHH was theoretically feuding with, Chris Jericho.
Pepper. Al Snow, he who carried around a mannequin head named Head, had lost Head. He found a little chihuahua to replace him. Al brings the dog out for one of his matches and leaves him in the care of announcer Jim Ross. Ross quickly became more interested in the dog than the match, and was very displeased with how much the loud crowd scared the dog. Pepper was almost immediately thereafter retired from television.

Video Games

Tear Grants of Tales Of The Abyss did this, although to a slightly lesser extent: She didn't completely lose her dignity, but cute things at first were the only indicators of her softer side.
- She shows it more in the anime adaption.
Princess Sapphire from Disgaea 3 has a thing for anything "cutesy". Like, for example, Raspberyl.
In the non-canon Valkyria Chronicles downloadable side mission "Edy's Detachment", it's revealed that the normally distant and aloof sniper Marina Wulfstan chokes up in the presence of puppies-
Edy: What about the time Marina went running off after that puppy?
Marina: ... So cute...
Saber in Fate Stay Night for lions and stuffed animals. Played for a joke initially and then used as fuel to tear her emotional facade apart. It's what she would normally be and would like to be if she didn't have to be King Arthur and whatnot.

Webcomics

xkcd shows it all in the 231th strip, "Cat Proximity", which is the partial Trope Namer.
Order Of The Stick goes so far as to use an actual kitty when using this trope...although Phil had a fairly low Intelligence and high Inanity of Statements to begin with.
- OOTS also demonstrates that Cuteness Proximity is actually dangerous.
- Belkar also fails victim to this trope, after a fashion, in that Mr. Scruffy is the only living thing he'll show any sort of empathy for.
In RPG World, one time badass Action Girl Cherry, left alone with Dragobo, took a quick look to each side before giving him a giant glomp. (Arguably, her reaction to Hero also falls under this category).
Gus in Loserz has this effect on people. Even Jodie's mother, who is normally quite emotionless, is reduced to complete incomprehensibility.
Averted in El Goonish Shive. Jeremy has no effect on Susan, despite its attempts. Goes into parody when she invokes this trope.
Marigold's Anthro-PC (who looks like a little girl anime character) has this effect on Dora in Questionable Content, as seen here.

Web Original

Marik in Yu-Gi-Oh The Abridged Series, as shown in Episode 31:
Marik I shall defeat you and then conquer the world! Ahahahaha, Ahaha! Oh, hey, look, a bird! Isn't it just the cutest little guy? I mean, No! I-In my new world, all birds shall be enslaved! Especially this one, and he shall be named, Mr. Tweetums! For it is very evil! Ahahahahaha! Now be gone, Mr. Tweetums! I am trying to stalk my nemesis!
Many comments on websites with cute pictures tend to show signs of this. See for instance the comments on The Daily Kitten (or just observe your own reaction...)
And no amount of killed dignity is complete without a trip to Cute Overload. Note the language (the blog owner can't possibly talk like that all the time, can she?).

Western Animation

In an episode of The Simpsons where all the guys are in the Navy for some reason and their sub is filling up with water, their thoughts go to their loved ones and in Moe's thought balloon he's stroking his kitty and talking baby talk to it before angrily turning to the audience shouting, "What are YOU lookin' at!?"
Whenever Fred Flintstone, normally a rough-around-the-edges Ralph Kramden-type, sees his daughter Pebbles, he goes all sweet and cute Bumbling Dad and starts to gush about his "little Pebbly-poo."
Hank Hill has a mild case of this for his dog Ladybird. While an old dog, she is one of the few living things that the emotionally repressed Hank will show open and adoring affection and emotion for. Also his father Cotton, a gruff misogynist even more emotionally closed off than Hank, is similarly adoring of his baby boy Good Hank.

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