Basic Trope: When somebody is glad to be home/free/on the ground, they will actually kiss the ground.
- Straight: Alice was on a boat, which sunk, and everyone had to escape via lifeboats. When she arrives on land, she starts kissing the ground.
- Exaggerated:
- Everyone who was on the boat kisses the ground.
- Alice kisses every centimeter of the piece of ground she's on.
- Alice makes out with the ground.
- Downplayed: Technically, Alice is kissing the floor and she only does one kiss.
- Justified: Alice is known to overact and...
- She's too grateful to care about germs.
- She knows the ground is clean.
- She's a Super Hero who is immune to germs, or an alien who cannot get sick from Earth germs.
- Inverted:
- Alice is in a hot air balloon. She's always wanted to ride in a hot air balloon, so she kisses the sky.
- A ground-based Genius Loci kisses Alice.
- Subverted:
- Alice leans down to kiss the ground, but then says, "Nah, it'd be too dirty!" and changes her mind.
- Alice appears to be kissing the ground but then the camera pans out to reveal that she's kissing a cat that is sitting on the ground.
- Double Subverted:
- Alice then goes into a sterile building and kisses the floor.
- Alice is simply kissing a cat, but Bob, who was also on the boat, really is kissing the ground.
- Parodied: The ground is treated as Alice's love interest, and Alice decides to propose to the ground.
- Zigzagged: When they reach land, Alice kisses the ground, Bob kisses it once but changes his mind, Carol is indecisive about whether or not to kiss the ground, Dave imagines himself kissing the ground without actually doing it, and Erica is disgusted at the rest of them for even considering kissing the ground.
- Averted: Alice does not kiss the ground.
- Enforced:
- Lampshaded: "Alice, no, I'm happy to be on the ground too, but you shouldn't kiss it!"
- Invoked:
- Exploited: The ground is home to a strange plant that thrives on human saliva. Frank, who owns the plant, tells Alice to kiss the ground to help fertilize it.
- Defied: "If this were a movie, I'd be kissing the ground right now, but it's not, so I refuse to kiss something so dirty!"
- Discussed: "...And when we came back, she started kissing the ground!"
- Conversed: "Characters always kiss the ground when they're appreciating being on it, who does that in real life?!"
- Implied: Alice is seen leaning down and making smooching noises while Bob makes a disgusted face.
- Deconstructed: Alice gets sick from kissing the germy ground.
- Reconstructed: When Alice recovers, she still kisses the ground... provided she's on clean ground.
- Played for Laughs: Alice kisses the ground, and Bob says, "What are you doing?!". Alice comes to her senses and spits out a mouthful of dirt.
- Played for Drama: Alice gets a serious disease as a result of kissing the ground.
Back to Kissing the Ground.
