Fetish Fuel - Television Tropes & Idioms

"Are you... You're getting some kind of sick, sexual thrill off this, aren't you?"
— Stewie, Family Guy

1. If it exists, it is someone's fetish.
2. If it has ever crossed your mind, someone out there has a fetish for it.
— An Internet rule sometimes known as Rule 36.

In a nutshell, Fetish Fuel is when something in a work isn't explicit nudity, sexual activity, or something else pornographic, but still causes sexual arousal in the viewer.

Usually the cause is that this sets off a Fetish a viewer has (hence the name), a viewer's Perverse Sexual Lust, or something else. But unlike Nightmare Fuel, this can be intentional just as often as not. See Fanservice and Author Appeal.

Of course, from all that has been shown on the internet, it can seem that anything can end up being someone's fetish (see Rule Thirty Six for more about this). So even if there is no actual sexual subtext in something, a viewer can still be turned on. Yet even this can still cause some Squick moments for some people (like Lolicon).

Of course, as varied as the tropes Fetish Fuel covers are, some of the most interesting kind are unexpected and often downright bizarre.

You readers will also notice that a lot of the following examples will be shows the tropers (and probably yourself) have watched as children. So yes, Harmful To Minors is Truth In Television, just not in the way the Moral Guardians get worked up over. This usually doesn't manifest until the onset of puberty or adulthood, although many people report being vaguely aware of their fetishes during their childhood, or at least being excited by them even then. Also, be warned that one troper's Fetish Fuel can be another troper's Nightmare Fuel, and vice versa.

It can also sometimes accidently (or perhaps purposely) border on Does This Remind You Of Anything.

A Sister Trope to Fetish (which is when someone on the show has a fetish).

Compare with Fanservice, Freud Was Right, Parent Service (Something deliberately sexy is thrown in, but for the grown ups. If it turns on the kids as well...), Playing To The Fetishes (something meant to deliberately appeal to anyone turned on by these), Fetish Fuel Station Attendant (a character loaded with common fetishes).

Fan Disservice is supposed to not turn you on, with varying degrees of success.

See Turn On Tropes for a list of tropes that are often fetish fuel.

These are some other common forms, that are not yet tropes:

Inflation (The already mentioned Balloon Belly covers half of it)
Tickling (often in the context of Cool And Unusual Punishment)
Flexibility (can turn on if done with the right people. Bonus points if mixed with Foot Focus and/or Stripperific/Walking Shirtless Scene).

Important: To avoid clutter, we kindly ask that any examples don't just mention a work and leave it at that. What specifically about the work turns you on, turned someone else on, or that you are just sure is someone's fetish?

Page Index

References to Fetish Fuel:

That Guy With The Glasses has an article about 6 movies that are likely fetish fuel.
A convention actually had a panel to discuss fetish fuel.
In a preview for Final Fantasy XIII, the writer notes the odd look of Snow's bike, and writes, "You can clearly see where Snow is supposed to sit, and well… looks like the Fetish Fuel page on TV Tropes is going to need an update soon..."
In this Full Frontal Nerdity strip, Nelson's "test" to see if Louis is the proper demographic for the "Twilight" sequel is a Fetish Fuel test.