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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.
Sometimes Cuteness Proximity leads to a desire to take the subject of cuteness home.
Definitely Truth In Television. See also Everythings Cuter With Kittens.
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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.
- A woman and man do this in a McCain commercial... To a bag of baby peas. Cue raspberries and the inevitable cooing. Ick.
Anime & 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.
- Roy Mustang apparently had this occur over dogs. Also, Al's reaction to kittens, while in character, probably counts, especially as he looks scary.
- And when Scar (that's right, SCAR) first gets a look at Xiao Mei the panda, he's so overcome with cute he wants to pet it!
- Maes Hughes was regularly seen bragging about his cute daughter.
- Rena Ryuuguu from Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni 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 — as Hanyuu can attest.
- 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.
- Then there's
Yukari's everybody's reaction to Chiyo in a penguin costume.
- 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.
- Shigure also had this reaction...to a tank.
- 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 Pokémon, 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 Pokémon.
- Marilyn, a one-off character in the episode "Battling a Cute Drama", to a truly ridiculous extent. Brock is annoyed to no end by it.
- 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.
- Also, Konata and virtual pets.
- Also, Yukata and Minami's dog, Cherry... know what? A LOT of examples are found in this show.
- One Piece. The Kyuun Spark (3:58)
 .
- 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.
- Nayuki from Kanon, any time she sees a cat.
- Given that Princess Tutu's Fakir is far nicer and affectionate to small, fuzzy animals than he is to any human being (including the very same small, fuzzy animal in human form), we can probably say he's afflicted with some level of Cuteness Proximity
Comics
- In an issue of She-Hulk, the title character visits a prison where supervillains are shrunk down before they are incarcerated. She starts cooing when she sees the tiny Wrecking Crew.
Fan Works
- 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!
- And later in Episode 43, even his evil alter ego, Melvin is shown to have a soft spot for the bird.
Melvin I hate to burst your bubble but there's no one in my head worth remembering.. NO! Mr. Tweetums! I can't forget about him!
Films
- In Shrek, the Genre Savvy Puss in Boots is fully aware of this trope and is quick to use it to his advantage.
- After Mittens teaches Bolt the "Dog Face", they never go hungry.
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.
- 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. She does this with babies (many of which, in Lancre at least, are her descendants) and with her evil one-eyed demon cat Greebo.
- Due to male and female dwarfs looking alike, Sam Vimes is still not sure how many of each he employs. Until his infant son is brought to the Watch House, and half of them can't help but fawn over him.
- Even Granny Weatherwax's hard outer shell softens around the kitten she named You. She places her on her head, under her hat; she claims it's to keep her head warm, but really, is anyone buying that?
- In the short story Hell in a Handbasket, any demon who comes across the baby in the story is forced to do this, whether it being intentional (Vassago), to being physically unable to harm the child and forced to talk in baby talk (Harpy).
- An entry in Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover's Soul features the author (a new cat owner) fearing she's become "one of those people" who use baby talk on their pets. Naturally she succumbs to it in the end.
Live Action TV
- Arrogant, Narcissistic painter Olivier in Six Feet Under turns to pudding when he meet Brenda's 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.
- Burt's son Chuck&Bob (Chuck was a ventriloquist), who was Wendy's step-uncle, would stick Bob's head up close to hers and go "WenyWenyWenyWenyWeny! WenyWenyWenyWenyWeny!" while shaking his head back and forth. Chuck is usually slightly embarrassed by Bob's behavior.
- 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 from Star Trek 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)
- Lampshaded quite neatly on Friends when Joey gets a dog. When Rachel sees the dog, she dissolves into Baby Talk, par for the course as far as this trope goes. She then realizes it, and says to the dog, still in Baby Talk mode, "I really have to stop talking like this before my board meeting, yes I do! Yes I do!"
- Daisy does this a lot with her dog Colin in Spaced. Downstairs neighbour Brian attempts to talk to the dog in a normal and reasonable tone (after inadvertently sitting on him) but this proves unsatisfying to Daisy, who forces him to adopt a cutesy and high-pitched voice when talking to the dog for no readily explainable reason.
Music
- French singer Richard Gotainer wrote a whole song — "Le Youki" — in baby talk, precisely to mock this habit of dog owners. You can find the clip there (and you probably don't need to understand French to get the gist of it). Warning: Ear Worm (and slightly NSFW too).
Pro 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 — by being kidnapped, cooked and fed to poor Al by the Big Bossman.
- Happened again with Rene Dupree's poodle, Fifi. Ross would talk about how terrified the dog was (Dupree being a heel) but whenever the camera was on her, she'd be stood on her hind legs, happily being fed popcorn by fans.
Video Games
Web Comics
- xkcd shows it all in the 231th strip, "Cat Proximity", which is the partial Trope Namer.
- The 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 Momo (who looks like a little girl anime character) has this effect on Dora in Questionable Content, as seen here.
- Apparently its a common enough occurrence to warrant having a taser feature built in to shock them out of it.
- The evil kittens in Sluggy Freelance make use of this too... although it usually only works once.
- Bree's cats are a frequent subject of her Journal Comic Sex, Drugs, and June Cleaver.
Web Original
- 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?).
- Quite a few of the Let's Players own cats who like to vocalize or otherwise annoy their owners at an in-opportune time. Lord Vega, for example, has had at least one Nightmare Fuel-laden blind run of Silent Hill interrupted by his cat.
- Deceased Crab has had mixed reactions to his kitty peeking in on him during his recordings. From irritation ("Begone, kitty! I'm trying to Shadow Run!") to your basic "Aww, you're a good kitty". (And, of course, the one time he tried to get his cat to meow on cue, the cat refused to cooperate.)
- Subverted in Let's Play Super Castlevania IV, where the apparent stimulus for Belmont killing Dracula was the death of his kitten, Fluffer Butter Waffle Nut. Naturally, the more the cat is discussed, the further into madness the speaker tends to descend...
- HC Bailey tends to play a lot of games with cats in them. Perhaps the best example of this trope was in Let's Play Chrono Trigger when he started collecting cats and starting off several episodes with an excited "and we got another kitty! Yes! Yes!"
- SCP Foundation: "SCP-2558-J has displayed the ability to distract people far more than merited by being kittens, even considering their anomalous abilities. Suggested reclassification as Euclid."
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.
- The series of Chuck Jones cartoons with Marc Anthony and Pussyfoot, starting with Feed the Kitty, are fueled by this trope. Big, gruff bulldog Marc Anthony completely melts before adorable kitty Pussyfoot and becomes a staunch protector of the naďve kitten. Honestly, who wouldn't?
- On The Penguins of Madagascar, the penguins were tasked with hatching an egg. Most of them don't last very long before succumbing to their brooding instinct despite their leader's insistence that they think manly thoughts.
- On Venture Brothers, a lot of cats pounce on Dr. Orpheus in one episode, leading him to giggle and say "They smell my cat!"
Real Life
- On The X Factor and American Idol, Simon Cowell is seen to be affected by Cuteness Proximity. The Mean Brit is actually a vegetarian and animal lover, and his meanness fades away whenever any auditionee brings their pet dog into the audition room.
- Happened again to Simon during auditions for America's Got Talent (maybe?), when an little girl sang the most adorable rendition of "Somewhere Over The Rainbow", and he damn near cried.
- Averted by a Polynesian tribe (I want to say New Guinea but I know that's not it) who consider baby talk to be an indication of mental disability and an insult to whoever/whatever it's being used on.
- Sign me up for that tribe.
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