History Main / SniffSniffNom

* In the ''Anime/{{Patlabor}}'' episode "The Tragedy of L," Captain Gotoh tastes a sample of what appears to be blood (but isn't). This horrifies everyone else.

* In ''[[Film/BillAndTed Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure]]'', Genghis Khan sniffs and tries to take a bite out of a baseball bat. When he realizes the bat is inedible, he tests its use as a weapon.

* '''VERY''' averted for chemists. While smell is often used as an indicator of chemicals, and on very rare occasions, taste, it is heavily discouraged when working with unknown chemicals, and many people have died or been injured heavily by tasting chemicals. On the other hand, accidentally tasting chemicals has, amongst other things, brought artificial sweeteners into the world.

* Show of hands: How many people will lick their least favorite/odious food when ordered to "taste it".

* Show of hands. how many people will lick their least favorite/ odious food when ordered to "taste it".

** Considering that FingertipDrugAnalysis is Agent Mulder's favourite investigative technique, it's almost inevitable that he would do this from time to time. For instance, he smells and then has a lick of poisonous digitalis in the episode "Eve".
** In "Revelations", Scully can smell flowers while performing an autopsy. She recalls that accounts of miracles involved flowery scents, and she asks Mulder to smell Mr Owen.

* ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'': On an unfamiliar planet, faced with a dish full of eight-legged insectoid things in pink sauce, Zak Arranda from ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear'' dips a finger in and tastes it to determine if it's [[MessOnAPlate as foul as he initially thought]], then tucks in enthusiastically. It's a caution he'd do well to have remembered later in the series, when he tries a normal-looking puff pastry, made for fishlike Mon Calamari, and realizes [[AlienLunch it's full of tiny live crabs]].

* ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'': In [[Machinima/RedVsBlueSeason14 season 14]]'s "The 'Mission'", after finding the base on the ice planet, Iowa licked it to check that it was real and not a hallucination.

* [[http://awkwardzombie.com/index.php?page=0&comic=061112 This page]] of Webcomic/AwkwardZombie features this trope in full effect. Katie as a [[CatFolk Khajiit]] ate a flower and determined it would make a great poison, which is how you quickly find out what an alchemy ingredient can be used for in The Elder Scrolls series.

* In the obscure German movie ''Film/TheOgre'', no one but [[ThoseWackyNazis Hermann]] [[GreatWhiteHunter Göring]] shows the protagonist how to do it with deer scat. {{Squick}}.

* In an odd moment in ''TheBobo'', Juan (Creator/PeterSellers) grudgingly takes Olimpia (Creator/BrittEkland) to a posh, dignified fur salon. When a server comes by with a silver tray of tea and wafers, Juan makes an undignified grab for a fistful of wafers. Everyone freezes, and, acknowledging the gaffe, he slowly draws them to his nose and sniffs them suspiciously before taking a bite.

* ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'': Finn tries to show [[JunglePrincess Susan Strong]] how to toast marshmallows. Susan tosses away the marshmallow and gnaws at the stick.
-->'''Jake:''' Heh. That's adorable!

--->'''Jake:''' Tastes good.
--->'''Finn:''' Dang, man! Don't just lick stuff!

-->'''Hermes:''' It looks like toxic waste. *sniff sniff* And it smells like toxic waste.\\

* Used by [[TheSmartGuy Kowalski]] of ''WesternAnimation/ThePenguinsOfMadagascar'', him being the resident scientist.
* In the ''{{WesternAnimation/Futurama}}'' episode "Leela's Homeworld," Hermes Conrad uses this to determine whether the bright green waste product being generated by the Professor's latest invention is toxic waste.
-->'''Hermes:''' It looks like toxic waste. *sniff sniff* And it smells like toxic waste.
-->'''Fry:''' What does it taste like?
-->'''Hermes:''' ''(dips finger in barrel and licks it off)'' Delicious fig pudding! Ooh, that's good! ... But a distinct aftertaste of toxic waste!
** In the episode "A Flight to Remember" the guy Amy's parents try to set her up with does this with the lobster bisque. He's not trying to figure out what it is; he's just gross.
* In the first episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'', while locked up in the rookery with Brooklyn, Lexington, and Bronx, Broadway does a textbook example to some slime he finds. His brothers are understandably disgusted and concerned (that he might eat them).
* Sokka from ''[[WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' does this to the slime/honey? covered walls of a cave.
--> '''Katara:''' You've been [[MushroomSamba hallucinating on cactus juice]] all day, and then you just ''lick something'' you find stuck to the wall of a cave?!
-->'''Sokka:''' I have a natural curiosity.
* Most of the dishes cooked by Tino's mom on ''WesternAnimation/TheWeekenders'' get this treatment.

** Thirteen is fond of this as well. She eats some dirt to determine her location, time period, and the location of a nearby Alpaca farm (and its Tripadvisor rating, but that may have just been the ObfuscatingInsanity talking). She also both squicks and intrigues Creator/LordByron and Claire Clairmont when she does a taste analysis on a crushed skeleton hand to determine its century of origin.

* Shen Nong Shi, the [[Myth/ChineseMythology Chinese mythological]] tamer of plants, who was said to have tried eating every kind of plant available to see which ones were beneficial and which poisonous.
** in some versions of the myth, his quest ended when he accidentally ate a poisonous plant and died.

** Thirteen is fond of this as well. She eats some dirt to determine her location, time period, and the location of a nearby Alpaca farm (and its Tripadvisor rating, but that may have just been the ObfuscatingInsanity talking).

* Shen Nung Shi, the [[Myth/ChineseMythology Chinese mythological]] tamer of plants, who was said to have tried eating every kind of plant available to see which ones were beneficial and which poisonous.

* [[BigEater Alice]] of ''Manga/PandoraHearts'' does this with a lot of things, including flowers and [[http://www.mangareader.net/350-50866-26/pandora-hearts/chapter-48.html a pet bird]].