Best friends Alice and Bob are eating together, when Bob notices that Alice has gotten a bit of food on her cheek. Saying "here, let me get that for you", Bob reaches over to wipe it away with his thumb. The breathless Alice, having carried a torch for Bob for a long time, looks into his eyes and he into hers. Slowly, they lean in closer...
The Romance Inducing Smudge is any kind of smudge, stain, or blotch that causes one character to help clean it off of another, which leads to a romantic moment between the two. This serves as an excuse for the characters involved to get closer together than they otherwise normally would, and the ostensibly innocent touching involved is almost sure to increase romantic tension for the pair.
The stain need not be food related, though this is frequently the case. Similarly, the offending smudge need not be limited to an individual's face: a stain on their clothing that a potential object of affection must rub out can work perfectly well for this purpose, among other things.
If both people involved catch on to the mood of the scene, this can lead to a First Kiss between them. It is not uncommon, however, for the pair to be interrupted at the last second by someone else barging in or by one of the characters losing their nerve. Either way, this can work as a sign that one or both characters have feelings for the other, or serve as more fuel for the Will They or Won't They? fire.
Often used as a form of Ship Tease. Compare with You Taste Delicious, when one character decides to lick a smudge off of another, and with Finger-Suck Healing.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
- The Dangers in My Heart:
- In episode 2 (based on an extra chapter), Yamada is posing as a ghost for the school culture festival and tries painting red on her face for something extra. When Ichikawa gives advice on making it more realistic, she leans in to have him paint her face for her. He gets flustered and only puts red on her cheek.
- On Valentine’s Day, Yamada smudges Ichikawa’s cheek with chocolate and rubs it into a heart before running off. He doesn’t seem to realize exactly what she did, but it motivates him to give her some chocolate a few minutes later.
- I Want Your Mother To Be With Me!: When Ryo eats with Yuzuki and her son Asahi in Chapter 5, she wipes away a bit of rice on his cheek, and then realizes she was treating him like another kid.
- Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple: When Ma Renka shows up at the Ryouzanpaku dojo, she ends up staying for dinner. At one point she notices a grain of rice got stuck on Kenichi's face, which she flirtatiously removed and ate herself. Miu in response snapped the rice spoon she was holding at the time.
- My Dress-Up Darling uses a variation in the very first interaction between Gojo and Marin. The latter notices a small stain of ink on his arm, which she mistakes for a wound and examines by caressing it with her fingers, and a very flustered Gojo pulls back his arm, assuring her that he's fine.
- In The Pet Girl of Sakurasou, Sorata notices a bit of rice on Nanami's cheek and wipes it off. Mashiro watches and starts putting grains of rice on her own cheeks so Sorata will do it to her.
- The Quintessential Quintuplets: After they pass their exams, the Nakanos want to give Fuutarou something as a thank you for tutoring them, with all of them (except Yotsuba) agreeing on going for a kiss on the cheek. The girls nominate Ichika to do it, but after she tries and fails, Yotsuba of all people steals the moment when she notices a bit of cream on his cheek and kisses it off for him. Naturally the others react with varying degrees of shock at her unexpected boldness.
Fan Works
- Hetalia: Axis Powers fanfic Kaitō Kokoro
: Kiku and Feliciano had a food fight, and let's just say it led to something more...
Film — Live-Action
- Subverted in Big, when Susan tries to get Josh to touch her by leaving a dab of mustard at the corner of her mouth, but being fabulously genre-blind to romance tropes, he merely points out the mustard and never tries to clean it himself, even when she pretends not to know where it is.
- Ron does this to Hermione twice, in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and then in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It still takes them ages to resolve their Belligerent Sexual Tension, though.
- In Inside Daisy Clover, Wade Lewis (Robert Redford) tenderly cleans the face of Daisy Clover (Natalie Wood) a bit before kissing her when she's doing a film dressed as a doll.
- Inverted in The Mummy, where Imhotep's romance with Anakh-Su-Namun leads him to smear her body paint.
- Spoofed in Rustlers' Rhapsody, where the cattle baron's daughter has been dragged behind her horse for hours. When Rex rescues her, she has only a tiny smudge on her cheek to show for it, which Rex tenderly wipes away.
- A variation in Zombieland: Columbus discusses how his life's dream is to brush a girl's hair behind her ear.
Literature
- Though, in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Ron doesn't do this to Hermione (since they're both 11), it's treated as notable that he notices and points it out. See the film section above.
- This happens early in the Left Behind series, when Chloe is eating a cookie and has a bit of chocolate on her cheek. Buck leans over and wipes it off with his thumb, then eats it on impulse. Cookies later become a romantic symbol for them.
- Happens in the second book of the Nightrunner series, although in this case Alec is dirtying a clean spot of Seregil's cheek for a disguise. Since this happens after Seregil has realized his feelings for Alec, but while he still believes they are completely unrequited, he is rather shocked.
- In There Was No Secret Evil Fighting Organization, newlywed Kaburagi wants to initiate sex but isn't sure how, so she pretends this trope is happening and pulls him on top of her when he gets closer. (He gets the point then.)
Live-Action TV
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer: A rare romantic moment passes between Willow and Xander in the season two episode "When She Was Bad", when Willow gets ice cream on her nose as the pair are walking past a cemetery. As Xander leans in to clean it for her, the two look like they are about to kiss... until a vampire pops up behind Willow, forcing Xander to attempt to hold it off and killing a Squee-inducing moment for Willow x Xander shippers.
- Willow later attempted to invoke this trope by putting ice cream on her own nose, but Xander, now once again distracted by Buffy, simply says "You got something on your nose."
- Doctor Who: In "Love & Monsters", Rose's mom used this trope on Elton to get him to take his shirt off.
- Firefly example. In "Objects In Space", Mal tries to examine the bloodstain on Inara's lip from where Jubal Early struck her. The spark when Mal's hand touches Inara's lip is all but visible.
- In the Glee episode "Wheels", Puck and Quinn have a playful food fight while making cupcakes for a bake sale. Puck goes to wipe flour off of Quinn's cheek and they lean towards each other... then Finn walks in.
- Parodied in the How I Met Your Mother episode "World's Greatest Couple", where Brad freaks out Marshall at dinner by licking his napkin and wiping a smudge of food off his face.
- Averted in a famous sketch by German comedian Loriot. He tries to seduce a woman in an Italian restaurant, but happens to have a piece of noodle in his face. When she points it out, he removes it, but the next time he uses the napkin, the noodle returns to his face. Hilarity Ensues as the noodle moves around. No, he doesn't get the girl.
- In Northanger Abbey (ITV's 2007 TV movie), during Catherine's visit to the Abbey, Catherine and Henry go horse riding to see Henry's parsonage. When they reach it, it's about to start raining. Catherine suggests they race back to the Abbey. It's quite a rainy and muddy ride and at the Abbey, Henry cleans and caresses Catherine's face.
- A mild variation is invoked in Parks and Recreation between Leslie and Ben after the latter has dust thrown in his face as a fake Native American curse-lifting ritual.
- Scrubs: Towards the end of "His Story II", Elliot cleans the last little bit of clown makeup off of J.D.'s face (long story). Ten seconds later, cue makeout session.
- Korean drama Secret Garden has an oft-parodied variant, where the male lead gets rid of the milk on the female's lips by kissing her.
- A moment like this happens (oddly enough) in The X-Files episode "Red Museum". It was odd because it was supposed to be in the time period in which Chris Carter was adamantly denying any romantic feelings between Mulder and Scully. While investigating a case in cattle country, the two decide to eat at a local rib restaurant. In the middle of talking about the case they're on, Mulder just reaches over with a napkin and wipes a smudge of sauce off of Scully's face. Though taken aback, Scully graces him with a shy smile.
- In Friends, after Monica and Richard break up, the two engage in various, completely platonic (in the beginning, anyway) activities such as preparing food for a dinner Richard is hosting. He gets tomato juice on his shirt and Monica is quick to wipe the stain off his chest, leading to much tension.
Theatre
- The song "A Stud and a Babe" from the musical I Love You Youre Perfect Now Change features one of these in the middle. Subverted, because he doesn't actually do anything but tell her about it, and the romance fades fast after he does.
Guy: You, uh... you have some nacho schmutz on your face.
Girl: (wipes) Gone!
Guy: You, uh, you wiped it to the... other side. Now it's on your chin... better? - In the song "It Won't Be Long Now" from In the Heights, the character Vanessa pauses to tell Usnavi he has "some schmutz" on his face and tries to wipe it off. He shyly tries to move away and the two stand there awkwardly until Sonnny appears and starts dancing with Vanessa.
Webcomics
- In Bandette, Bandette jokes about this before kissing Daniel, after rescuing him in a PG-rated version of Glad-to-Be-Alive Sex.
Bandette: You have something on your face.
Daniel: I do?
Bandette: Oui, it is Bandette. (Kisses him) - Subverted in El Goonish Shive, where Ellen goes to wipe a smudge off Nanase's face and she freaks out because she was having trouble admitting her attraction to Ellen, and moments like that only made it more awkward. Add to this the facts that Nanase used to like it when her last ex-boyfriend (Ellen's brother) did stuff like this and that the napkin was tucked in Nanase's blouse.
Western Animation
- In Drawn Together, Xander does this to Toot when they're dancing together. Except, instead of a smudge, it's a whole piece of chicken removed from her face.
- In an episode of Young Justice, Me'gann accidentally spills all kinds of stuff on Superboy while trying to make dinner, which of course induces her to attempt to clean him up...and then right when they are about to kiss, Red Tornado walks in and they spring apart across the room. Superboy still with everything on him, staring at TV static. Yeah, not obvious at all.
