Hates Baths - Television Tropes & Idioms

For some characters, one of the scariest or things in the world is a bath. This is most commonly seen in young characters (especially boys), who often have to be dragged kicking and screaming to the bath tub. For adult characters it is usually a man whose wife forces him to take a bath. Other species, such as cats and dogs, are often commonly depicted as disliking baths. However, this trope could apply to any age, gender or species.

This trope is related to The Pig Pen, however a character who Hates Baths need not necessarily be unusually filthy or smelly. Compare with Cats Hate Water for feline oriented examples.

Examples

Anime & Manga

Negi Springfield in Mahou Sensei Negima!. He gets it from his father.
Miata in Claymore.
Alice in Kamisama No Memochou.
Tetsuro in Galaxy Express 999.

ComicBooks

Dennis in Dennis the Menace (UK).
Most characters in The Beano.
Smudge from Monica's Gang is such an egregious example, it seems like he has an atomic allergy to any water that may touch him outside of his mouth. He gets around it in the sequel series, but he still dislikes bathing.
In the Lanfeust series and its spin-off Troll de Troy, every member of the troll species hates water with a passion. It goes into Weaksauce Weakness level, as any human with a magic power over water disposes of a great weapon against trolls.

Fan Fic

Tails in Bath Time. It seems like Sonic would have been a more logical choice due to his dislike bordering on irrational terror of water being almost a defining element of his character.

Films — Animation

In Disney's Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Dr. Sweet is able to drive Mole away from Milo after Milo accidentally sat in Mole's precious dirtpiles by threatening him with soap.
Sweet: I've got soap, and I'm not afraid to use it!
Mole: *hisses*
Sweet: *towel whip* Back foul creature! Back to the pit from whence you came!

Films — Live-Action

In the live-action version of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Mr. Beaver refers to bath day as the worst day of the year.
In the live-action version of Peter Pan, Nana the dog has to hoist Michael onto her back and throw him in every day.
Life is Beautiful. Little Giosue hides when his mom tells him it's time for his shower. Giosue's dislike of showers saves him later after he and his father are deported to a concentration camp.

Literature

Discworld
- Werewolves are very dog-like, to the point of flinching whenever someone even mentions the word "bath."
- The Nac Mac Feegle also have an aversion to washing, to the point where some believe it's their skin that comes off upon contact with soap and water, not grime.
- Witches don't necessarily hate baths, but seldom find time out of their busy schedules to take them. Granny Weatherwax dislikes them because she can't be havin' with nudity, and settles for washing "all the bits", as and when they become available.
Shogun. Blackthorne was afraid of baths at the begining of the story. Notably, Blackthorne is an adult, but comes from 17th-century England where a bath a month was considered overdoing things.
Running Gag with the Dibbuns (baby animals) and vermin (Always Chaotic Evil species) in Redwall. The vermin actually have a comic song about how dangerous bathing is, about a young ferret who washed himself entirely out of existence.

Live-Action TV

Leave It To Beaver. Both Beaver and Waly on sometimes display this attitude, at least until they get older. In the first episode, they fake taking a bath by rumpling towels and putting dirt in the bath tub.
The Brady Bunch. The dog Tiger hates baths.

Newspaper Comics

Calvin in Calvin and Hobbes.
Dennis in Dennis The Menace (US).
Hägar the Horrible takes his bath once a year.
In one of the early strips of Peanuts, Charlie Brown tries to stall taking a bath using tactics that would latter be imitated by Calvin. However, this aspect to his character never got the same level of attention as Calvin got and was eventually forgotten. Presumably he grew out of it.
Wellington's dog Boot in The Perishers. His aversion to being bathed (in an old tin bath) turns bathtimes into epic battles.
The water-hating Wiley from BC.

Theater

Buddy Layman from The Diviners hated to be in water.

Video Games

A PC Dark Sun game had, as one of its villains, an Evil Sorcerer who was fond of cruel irony. One of the first of his "experiments" the Player Party discovers is a bronze statue under an ever-running showerhead, body frozen in twisted agony. A sign nearby reveals that this used to be one of his assistants, who disliked baths.
Okami. Amaterasu hates getting wet and tries to avoid water (as does Issun, who dubs her "No-Bath Ammy").
In The Sims 2, dogs can end up becoming this if they're not praised for behaving in the bath, or if they are praised for jumping out.

Web Comics

Lardee from My Milk Toof who hides and says "I don't wanna".
The Cyantian Chronicles: King Laish's son Sar, to the point of throwing a screaming fit and calling for his mother, Queen Mirand.
Faen Val'Sullisinrune of Drowtales after the 15 year timeskip, and with very good reason given what she witnessed earlier in the story.

Western Animation

Looney Tunes. Elmer Fudd's dog in the short An Itch in Time.
The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. Tigger tries to hide Roo from Kanga to keep from taking a bath. Tigger seems to hate baths even more than Roo does, as he keeps claiming they lead to "The End!"
- Maybe because he knows that washing tends to wear out cloth fibres, depending on how often it's done, and can make them deteriorate faster, leading to the cloth becoming threadbare and having to be disposed of?
Rugrats. Phil and Lil hate taking baths.
The Powerpuff Girls. In one episode, Buttercup keeps getting dirty after a fight and refuses to bathe. This escalates as more dirt gets layered on her until she eventually run out of town for her smell. The final straw comes when a monster refuses to continue to fight her due to the stink, resulting in her giving in and taking a bath.
KaBlam! In one "Life With Loopy" segment, Loopy refuses to bathe because she'll "just get messy again."
Muppet Babies. Rowlf's dislike of baths is the focus of one of the episodes.
The Simpsons. One of the shorts on The Tracy Ullman Show concerned Bart being forced to take a bath. He doesn't want to initially (even hiding from Homer to avoid it) but once he's in and used to the cold water he has fun, eventually flooding the house.
Taz-Mania. A running theme is "TAZ HATE WATER!!!!" This applied to any thing that involved getting wet. Baths just made it ten times worse.
Tommy Gilligan from Codename: Kids Next Door. The episode "Operation: DUCKY" is all about this trope.
Gary, SpongeBob SquarePants snail refuses to let Spongebob bathe him in one episode even resorting to TELEPORTATION to avoid getting in the bath. Strange, as they live underwater ....
Martha on Martha Speaks
In some episodes, Mickey's mention of baths would make Pluto scurry off in a hurry for someplace to hide.
Krypto The Super Dog: Streaky the Supercat would often try to avoid a bath from his owner as much as possible. Although this could have more to do with the fact that his owner's a little kid who treats him a bit too roughly than him being a cat disliking baths in general.