History Main / SmokingIsNotCool

* This is the subject of the "[[AndKnowingIsHalfTheBattle Sonic Sez]]" segment at the end of the ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog'' episode, "[[Recap/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehogS01E30FullTiltTails Full-Tilt Tails]]", wherein Grounder smokes a cigarette and makes Tails do the same. As Grounder ends up choking on his cigarette and turning a pale green, Sonic explains to the viewers that smoking is bad for your health and stains your teeth.

* ''ComicBook/FiftyTwo'' shows us the ramifications of [[ComicBook/TheQuestion Vic Sage's]] smoking habit. The lung cancer he had contracted killed him off, allowing Renee Montoya to take over his title.

* ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} could well have been the poster boy for [[SmokingIsCool the opposite Trope]] most of his career, rarely seen without a cigarette or occasionally a cigar; his mutant HealingFactor let him smoke without it hurting him. However, in one 80s story arc, he lost the healing factor for a short time, and trying to light up almost made him sick. It was enough to convince him to quit. In an '80s issue of ''Uncanny X-Men'', Wolverine and Kitty are sitting on the steps of Kitty's college, talking over the problem of the issue. Wolvie has a cigar that is constantly making Kitty cough. Finally having had enough of it, she snaps, takes the stogie from Wolvie's mouth shouting "GIVE ME THAT!" Wolverine replies "Your funeral, Pun'kin," as she takes a puff to spite him. She breaks out in a coughing fit and gets sick to her stomach. Wolverine merely replies "Warned you." She asks how he could tolerate something like that, and he says it's an acquired taste, along with his healing factor protecting him from the harmful effects, reminding Kitty that she doesn't have either of those. She says "No fear of that. This is one vice ''I'll'' skip... Assuming I live..."
* ''ComicBook/IdeesNoires'': One gag has people scolding a smoker about the dangers of his habit. [[spoiler:He eventually gets so scared of what they tell them him that he finally commits suicide. The others' comment: "Another victim of tobacco."]]
* ''ComicBook/DeKiekeboes'': In ''De come-back van Dédé'' ("The comeback of Dédé") the vicious criminal Dédé La Canaille escapes with the aid of his chain smoking friend Jim Menace who has developed a smoker's cough that causes him to cough all throughout the album. The police are eventually able to trace Dédé and Jim because they discover his cigarette butts lying around.
* Back in the 80s, Marvel produced a VerySpecialEpisode team-up comic of Spider-Man, Luke Cage (who was still going by Power Man at the time), and Storm where they had to confront a supervillain called Smokescreen whose EvilPlan was to hook a track star on cigarettes so that he could make money betting against the kid when all that smoking started affecting his performance. Smokescreen had the power to generate clouds of cigarette smoke that he could blow at people and make them choke, allowing him to somehow overcome Storm. And then after he was defeated, Spider-Man delivered an {{Anvilicious}} talk about how awful smoking is and how you should never, ever do it to the reader. [[FridgeLogic This was when Wolverine, Ben Grimm, Nick Fury, and other heroes were still shown smoking in almost every appearance]].
* Longtime ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' supporting character Commissioner Gordon was shown with an alternating fondness for cigarettes and [[DistinguishedGentlemansPipe a pipe]] and ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'' character Perry White was a CigarChomper--until the 1990s, when it bit them in the ass in the form of, respectively, a heart attack and lung cancer. While both men recovered, they also gave up smoking--at least [[DependingOnTheWriter for a while]].
* In ''ComicBook/SupermanAndBatmanGenerations'', ComicBook/LoisLane takes up smoking in 1939, claiming it to be as harmless as eating breakfast in the morning. By 1969, however, Lois is diagnosed with advanced lung cancer and tells her daughter Kara Kent that smoking is what also ended up killing Perry White. By 1979, Lois is in the hospital and on death's door. Thankfully, that wonderful [[SignificantAnagram Dr. Holurt]] has taken over her treatment.

See also DoNotDoThisCoolThing and GoodSmokingEvilSmoking. Sub-trope of DrugsAreBad. NoSmoking is this trope as a censorship application.

* ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} could well have been the poster boy for [[SmokingIsCool the opposite Trope]] most of his career, rarely seen without a cigarette or occasionally a cigar; his mutant HealingFactor let him smoke without it hurting him. However, in one 80s story arc, he lost the healing factor for a short time, and trying to light up almost made him sick. It was enough to convince him to quit.

* PlayedForLaughs in ''VideoGame/DeathwishEnforcers'' with Diana, when she enters doors with rapid-fire power-ups. While her fellow ActionGirl Cleo lives up to the SmokingIsCool ideal as per [[DeliberateValuesDissonance the game's 1960s setting, Diana smokes until she's green in the face, clearly showing that she has no experience with this.

* In ''ComicStrip/{{Dilbert}}'' a Tobacco lobbyist talks about wanting to spread the image of sex appeal that smoking brings while she herself is a withered husk in a suit.
* ''ComicStrip/{{Doonesbury}}'' had this come up to Mr. Butts, the sycophantic mascot of the tobacco industry of all characters. As part of a promotion, Butts comes up behind a guy who exudes coolness and asks if he smokes. The guy, never turning around to see who is asking, simply replies, "No, smoking is for idiots."

* The Detective in ''VideoGame/DiscoElysium'' thinks SmokingIsCool (and during his youth, it perhaps was), but it's wrecked his lungs, aged him from [[IWasQuiteALooer the strikingly handsome Precinct 'rock star' he was in his 30s]] to a sad, bloated old man, and turned his fingers brown. Klaasje chain-smokes menthol cigarettes, and it's slowly ruining her [[SlidingScaleOfBeauty movie-star good looks]] (the Detective notes that Klaasje's glittery disco catsuit, close-up, is covered with burn marks from the cigarette ash). The Deserter smokes and it's part of his overall [[FunHatingVillain joyless, miserable old age]]; and while Kim smokes, in part because he loves the cool image of it (and Harry praises how cool he looks while doing so), he is also ashamed of himself for falling for the affectation, notes how unhealthy and pointless it is, and limits himself to exactly one cigarette a day.

* Probably the only unattractive thing about Dr. Girlfriend on ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'' is [[VocalDissonance her masculine, gravelly voice]]. After a few seasons (and [[AmbiguousGender some transphobic jokes]]) the show settled on the idea this just came from smoking a lot.

* ''FanFic/BecomingFemale'' features RonTheDeathEater becoming "Ron Raper", apparently a parody of Don Draper from ''Series/MadMen''. As part of the parody, "Ron Raper" is always smoking an "unhealthy cigarette" because "he was too dumb to know smoking was bad for you".

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Pinocchio}}'': Lampwick, who is already being portrayed as a cocksure idiot, taunts Pinocchio for not smoking properly. In an example of ScareEmStraight, he then literally transforms into a donkey. Pinocchio [[NoMoreForMe immediately throws his cigar away]].

* ''ComicStrip/PearlsBeforeSwine'': Stephen Pastis is a non-smoker in real life but his AuthorAvatar in the comic is a heavy smoker in order to, [[WordOfGod in Pastis's words]], make him look more like a "[[SelfDeprecation degenerate loser]]".

* ''ComicStrip/{{Doonesbury}}'' had this come up to Mr. Butts, the sycophantic mascot of the tobacco industry of all characters. As part of a promotion, Butts comes up behind a guy who exudes coolness and asks if he smokes. The guy, never turning around to see who is asking, simply replies, "No, smoking is for idiots."

* ''VideoGame/BloodwingsPumpkinheadsRevenge'': There's a JokeItem in the first level, a pack of cigarettes, which if you try to use them ''will kill you''.
* In ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamCity'', the Penguin has had to attach a voice box to his neck because of all that smoking he does.

* The Detective in ''VideoGame/DiscoElysium'' thinks SmokingIsCool (and during his youth, it perhaps was), but it's wrecked his lungs, aged him from the strikingly handsome Precinct 'rock star' he was in his 30s to a sad, bloated old man, and turned his fingers brown. Klaasje chain-smokes menthol cigarettes, and it's slowly ruining her [[SlidingScaleOfBeauty movie-star good looks]] (the Detective notes that Klaasje's glittery disco catsuit, close-up, is covered with burn marks from the cigarette ash). The Deserter smokes and it's part of his overall [[FunHatingVillain joyless, miserable old age]]; and while Kim smokes, in part because he loves the cool image of it (and Harry praises how cool he looks while doing so), he is also ashamed of himself for falling for the affectation, notes how unhealthy and pointless it is, and limits himself to exactly one cigarette a day.
* The news reporter in ''VideoGame/PerfectVermin'' is seen smoking cigarettes off-screen between levels as indicated by his ashtray. His {{Jerkass}} behavior, {{Gonk}}ish appearance, and discolored yellow and rotting teeth do not paint a cool image of him. [[spoiler:He's also dying of lung cancer as a result of his addiction.]]
* Played for laughs in ''VideoGame/DeathwishEnforcers'' with Diana, when she enters doors with rapid-fire power-ups. While her fellow ActionGirl Cleo lives up to the SmokingIsCool ideal as per the game's 1960s setting, Diana smokes until she's green in the face, clearly showing that she has no experience with this.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Bravestarr}}'' rams this message down your throat. BigBad Tex Hex had a toadying lickspittle named Scuzz who smokes cigars and is always coughing and hacking up a storm. The other villains despise him, and in one KnowingIsHalfTheBattle segment, even he admits that he regrets having started the habit in the first place.
* As early as 1938 (when most of the world would reject this Trope) WesternAnimation/PorkyPig starred in a ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' commercial called ''WesternAnimation/WhollySmoke'' that emphasized the dangers of smoking and made the habit look about as "cool" as self-mutilation.
* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'': The entire plot of the episode "Secondhand Smoke" revolves around this. Peter takes up smoking to have an excuse to quit working, and quickly becomes addicted; the episode does not pull any punches on how much havoc Peter's wreaking on his body and health by doing so. Eventually, the episode ends [[spoiler: with Peter wondering how things will turn back to normal for him. Lois tells him the effects of smoking can't be overturned. Peter just asks for a cutaway gag, but when it returns to him, he is still in the same worse shape, causing him to say: "Oh, crap!". Cue the end credits.]]
* This is the subject of the "[[AndKnowingIsHalfTheBattle Sonic Sez]]" segment at the end of the ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog'' episode, "[[Recap/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehogS01E30FullTiltTails Full-Tilt Tails]]", wherein Grounder smokes a cigarette and makes Tails do the same. As Grounder ends up choking on his cigarette and turning a pale green, Sonic explains to the viewers that smoking is bad for your health and stains your teeth.
* ''WesternAnimation/PinkyAndTheBrain'': In the VerySpecialEpisode "Inherit the Wheeze", Brain gets addicted to smoking after being used for animal testing of the effects of nicotine, and Pinky starts to worry his friend has a [[{{Malaproper}} "monkey in his pants"]]. Brain's latest scheme to TakeOverTheWorld involves becoming the Joe Cool-esque mascot for a tobacco company, and all the executives at the company are shown as sleazebags with terrible smoker's coughs. Hell, the company president is a wheelchair-bound invalid who [[YoungerThanTheyLook looks like he's pushing a hundred even though he's only in his forties]]. Brain gives up on the scheme and vows to kick the habit [[EveryoneHasStandards when he sees the execs plan to use him to market cigarettes to kids]].
* A ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken'' sketch involves several famous cartoon characters being treated for lung cancer in a hospital. These include Franchise/ThePinkPanther, the caterpillar from ''WesternAnimation/AliceInWonderland'', [[WesternAnimation/{{Popeye}} Olive Oyl]] (who suffered from secondhand pipe smoke from Popeye, who ironically [[AcquiredPoisonImmunity built up an immunity to lung cancer from the antioxidants in his spinach]]), and [[WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones Fred Flintstone]] (who speaks through an electrolarynx as a result of smoking too many Winston cigarettes).
* ''WesternAnimation/SchoolhouseRock'': The Multiplication Rock song "Naughty Number Nine" is about a cigar-smoking FatCat who plays pool with an unwilling mouse as the cue ball. The people behind the show had to fight the censor to get the cigar on the air to show how "Naughty" the character was. In ''The Official Guide'', they admitted that in modern times, the cat would probably take his stogie outside to smoke.
* The ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures'' episode "Life in the 90s" had a segment called "Butt Out", which was a seven-minute long anti-smoking PSA. Babs attempts to enjoy her carrot cake, but is constantly bothered by Roderick and Rubella Rat from Perfecto Prep who are smoking cigarettes despite being in the non-smoking section of the restaurant. She tries to be nice, but when they refuse, of course, y'know, ThisMeansWar

* ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'': "[[Recap/HowIMetYourMotherS5E11LastCigarreteEver Last Cigarette Ever]]" reveals that [[CompressedVice all five main characters are former smokers]], but Ted kept this from his children out of embarrassment. The episode shows how smoking negatively affects them all: Lily's throat gets so bad she sounds like Creator/HarveyFierstein, Ted struggles to climb a few flights of stairs, Barney burns a hole in his beloved tie, and Marshall's boss (with whom he started smoking to impress) has a heart attack. They all try to quit, suffering drastic withdrawal, and the episode ends with Ted explaining how they all quit eventually, with Ted's last cigarette being two weeks after he started dating his future wife.

* ''Franchise/SpiderMan'':

[[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/smokingselma.png]]]]

* ''VideoGame/SamAndMax'', Sam and Max need to defeat Jurgen by destroying his reputation in front of his zombie army. One of the methods is to turn the VerySpecialEpisode of [[GermansLoveDavidHasslehoff Midtown Cowboys]] into an [[StealthCigaretteCommercial ad for Garlic Clove Cigarettes.]] The result is Jurgen smoking a cigarette only to end up in a coughing fit.

** Their anti-vaping ads that feature puppets that talk about the subject. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcoaHBd6wYE One particular ad]] has two puppets about to kiss when [[MomentKiller one of them barfs up cloth upon the other]], saying that vaping weakens your immune system.
** Their "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwyY6op9Bbk Twinkle, Twinkle Little Dick]]" ad, which suggests that [[TheLoinsSleepTonight smoking causes impotence in young men]], and possibly makes men go out with other men.

* ''Literature/ThisSideOfParadise'': Myra is not at all pleased with Amory's smoking habit when he tells her about it, giving her an unpleasant image about Amory suffering from the negative side-effects of smoking. She insists Amory to drop the habit, telling him that it'll stunt his growth. When Amory tells her that he doesn't care and that he had seen some horrible things. Later on, Myra still tells him to stop smoking and that she cares after Amory responds that nobody cares about smoking.

* ''Series/SisterSister'': One episode had a girl taunting one of the twins because she didn't smoke, but near the end of the episode the bully eventually got her comeuppance.

** When George is trying to get out of his engagement to Susan, he tries to take up smoking to get her to break up with him. Susan is disgusted, just as planned - unfortunately, George is just as disgusted, and he is unable to keep up the habit convincingly.

* ''Series/{{Friends}}'': Chandler was confirmed to have been a chain smoker when he was younger, and in the earlier seasons several episodes featured the rest of the gang trying to make him quit smoking, making it a point to tell him how gross it is. After he quit smoking, he picked up the habit again when the stress of being caught in the middle of Ross and Rachel's nasty break up became too much too handle, much to the chagrin of the rest of the gang.

** Johnny Sack being a chain-smoker is one if his defining traits, and even he knows it's not good. This is implied to be one if the reasons why he accepts [[MoralityPet Ginny's]] obesity, because he also has a self-destructive habit that's hard to break. But still, [[spoiler:he ends up getting terminal lung cancer in season six, and his death is one if the saddest moments in the series]].

* In Music/RelientK's song "Deathbed", the singer starts [[TheAlcoholic drinking]] and smoking cigarettes at 14. His alcoholism and habitual drinking lead to a lot of misery, cultivating in lung cancer. It ends on a BittersweetEnding, however, as he became Christian and went to heaven in the end.

* ''ComicStrip/PearlsBeforeSwine'': Stephen Pastis is a non-smoker in real life but his AuthorAvatar in the comic is a heavy smoker in order to, [[WordOfGod in Pastis' words]], make him look more like a "[[SelfDeprecation degenerate loser]]".

* ''Series/TheNoddyShop'': In the GrandFinale "Closing Up Shop", some of the characters convince Seymour Polutski [[spoiler:not to buy out NODDY's]] by telling him that smoking is bad.

* Played for laughs in ''VideoGame/DeathwishEnforcers'' with Diana, when she enters doors with rapid fire power-ups. While the fellow ActionGirl Cleo lives up to the SmokingIsCool ideal as per the game's 1960s setting, Diana smokes until she's green in the face, clearly showing that she has no experience with this.

* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'': The entire plot of the episode "Secondhand Smoke" revolves around this. Peter takes up smoking to have an excuse to quit working, and quickly becomes addicted; the episode does not pull any punches on how much havoc Peter's wreaking on his body and health by doing so. Eventually, the episode ends [[spoiler:with Peter wondering how things will turn back to normal for him. Lois tells him the effects of smoking can't be overturned. Peter just asks for a cutaway gag, but when it returns to him, he is still in the same worse shape, causing him to say: "Oh, crap!". Cue the end credits.]]

[[folder: RealLife]]
* Most smokers really start looking uglier as they get older. Apart from their veins turning their skin pale, many develop an annoying smoker's cough. And the perpetual, choking stench.
** Smoking kind of ages you prematurely. Skin gets drier, gums shrink, bones lose density. It also worsens circulation (making you pale), like a lot of people get when they're older.
* The late Creator/RodSerling was said to smoke three or four packs of cigarettes ''per day'' (for reference, a "heavy smoker" is anybody who smokes ''one'' pack or more in a day). Because of his chain-smoking, Serling died at the age of 50, having suffered three heart attacks in the span of less than two months.
* Actress Creator/HelenaBonhamCarter often plays roles where she looks pale, dresses badly, and smokes a cigarette to touch it all off.
* Belgian politician and criminal Jean-Pierre Van Rossem is an obese, long-haired, bearded man who chain smokes all the time and routinely insulted everybody in his vicinity.
* Aggressively promoted by the US Department of Defense, as well as many other militaries. While smoking used to be accepted and even commonplace among military personnel to the point where cigarettes were a part of field rations, the associated health care costs as well as the impact it has on the mission when chronic smokers cannot physically keep up or have to take frequent smoke breaks mandated an ''extremely'' negative view of smoking by military leadership. Cadets at military academies are not allowed to smoke, smoking is forbidden in basic training (which means anyone joining the military has to go cold turkey or risk being held back in training if they are caught smoking), smoking cessation classes are mandatory, and being seen as a smoker ''will'' be noted when it comes time for your annual evaluation, although raters are smart enough to find some other reason to downgrade you. Smoking is almost completely non-existent among officers, as they can't lecture against smoking if they smoke themselves. If you're an officer, and a general or an admiral sees you smoking around the enlisted personnel, may Almighty God bestow His infinite mercy upon your miserable soul...
* Belgian author Creator/HermanBrusselmans has long hair, a nihilistic approach to life, and a chain-smoking habit.
* Music/AmyWinehouse: As her drug addictions took a turn for the worse, her personal appearance became shabbier, further emphasized by often being photographed with a cigarette between her lips.
* Music/{{The Rolling Stones|Band}}: Music/KeithRichards also falls into this trope as he grows older.
* Dutch film director and assassination victim Theo van Gogh was also an obese chain-smoker who liked to shock and offend people for the sake of doing so.
* One list of advice for young people says that if you think SmokingIsCool, you should imagine yourself as a 12-year-old kid with a cigarette butt in your mouth because that's how it makes you look.
* [[https://parkernorris.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/smoking.jpg This 1972 promo from the American Cancer Society.]]
* Konstantin Chernenko, [[UsefulNotes/SovietRussiaUkraineAndSoOn Soviet politician and General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union]], started smoking at the age of ''nine'' and did so until the end of his life, despite the ''heavy'' toll it took on his health. He spent his last months of life in and out of hospitals, in a wheelchair, and ultimately died at age 73 of a '''nasty''' combo of emphysema, heart damage and liver cirrhosis.
* Legendary Japanese animator Creator/OsamuDezaki was a notorious chain-smoker, and it eventually killed him with lung cancer at the age of 67.
[[/folder]]

* Belgian author Herman Brusselmans has long hair, a nihilistic approach to life, and a chain-smoking habit.

* ''Series/HalloAusBerlin'': In "Schule", Arno is caught smoking in the school bathroom and [[AfterSchoolCleaningDuty has to clean part of the school as punishment]].