Line #43 Main/CakeToppers


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12	[[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation/Shrek1 https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_shrek_caketopper.png]]]]
13
14	->''"If you haven't met the perfect couple, let me introduce you. They stand atop a layer of butter-cream frosting. The secret of their success? Well, for starters, they don't have to look at each other."''
15	-->-- '''Mary Alice Young''', ''Series/DesperateHousewives''
16
17	There is a tradition of putting little bride and groom figurines on top of the wedding cake. At some point, there became a film tradition of using a shot of the figurines to tell us about the wedding. This occurs particularly if there is something unusual about the bride and groom that they can show in the figurines; e.g., a gay or lesbian wedding, an interracial marriage, or that the groom is a huge Packers fan. Just as often, it can be a commentary or joke on the wedding or the marriage or sometimes just to establish the scene at the reception, with the amount of damage to the cake indicating time passed.
18
19	If left at the altar, expect a character to take out their frustration on the half of the cake topper that left them. Or talk to it while weeping.
20
21	Then there's [[TooDumbToLive that one guy]] who [[ExtremeOmnivore tries to eat it]].
22	----
23	!!Examples:
24	[[foldercontrol]]
25
26	[[folder:Comic Books]]
27	* An Creator/ECComics story was based around a conman using bride and groom voodoo dolls to bewitch a wealthy old woman to marry him so he could have her money. He is eventually killed by the bride doll, which had maintained its power after the woman's death, and was being kept as a cake topper on a leftover piece of their wedding cake.
28	* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1942'': The Keating Mansion's eerie atmosphere is aided by a dusty cobweb strewn cake with a young bride and groom topper, of Abigail and John in their youth before John became a career criminal and Abigail a recluse.
29	[[/folder]]
30
31	[[folder:Fan Works]]
32	* In ''Fanfic/LovedAndLost'', an extended retelling of [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic "A Canterlot Wedding"]], the canonical cake toppers of Shining Armor and Princess Cadance get [[ChekhovsGun a more important role]]. When Spike is exiled from Equestria by [[TheUsurper Jewelius]], the latter gives the toppers to the baby dragon [[KickTheDog just to taunt him with the painful memory of turning his back on Twilight]]. And sure enough, Spike begins hating them for this reason. During the FinalBattle, Spike uses the toppers to [[spoiler:jam one wheel of Jewelius' chariot, [[HoistByHisOwnPetard preventing the tyrant from escaping]] as the tides turn against him]].
33	[[/folder]]
34
35	[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
36	* In ''WesternAnimation/Shrek1'', Princess Fiona is being forced to marry Lord Farquaad, a man who is [[BlatantLies absolutely not]] CompensatingForSomething. When she looks at their wedding cake toppers, she smushes his down into the cake to more accurately show his height. At the end of the movie, after Farquaad has been disposed of, the Gingerbread Man is seen smushing the figurine even further into the cake until it's completely hidden. He then dances with the Fiona cake topper.
37	[[/folder]]
38
39	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
40	* ''Film/TheBigCube'': At Johnny and Lisa's wedding, the groom statue is a bearded hippie wearing a medallion and striped pants, while the bride statue wears a bikini and a veil.
41	* At the double wedding in ''Film/CalamityJane'', you'll notice that the two couples managed to get cake toppers that are dressed a bit like their current wedding apparel, with the right hair colors and everything.
42	* In ''Film/FantasticFourRiseOfTheSilverSurfer,'' [[RubberMan Reed]] and [[{{Invisibility}} Sue]]'s wedding has a transparent bride with a groom wrapped around her.
43	* A wedding cake topper is used for SympatheticMagic in the Creator/AmicusProductions anthology horror ''Film/FromBeyondTheGrave'' (1973).
44	* Wedding cake toppers of Ursula Stanhope and Lyle Van [=DeGroot=] appear in ''Film/GeorgeOfTheJungle'' on a wedding cake. However, George smashes through the cake during a swing, and the Stanhopes' dog grabs the Lyle topper. A scene later, the smashed cake is seen with the headless Lyle topper on top. The little figures BreakTheFourthWall and shriek in terror just before George smashes them into bits.
45	* Creator/MelBrooks parodied this in ''Film/SilentMovie'', where he and Bernadette Peters see a wedding cake in a shop window. They then fantasy-segue into a gown-and-tails dance number on a wedding cake, struggling as they go as the icing gets deeper and deeper. At the end, the scene fades back to Mel and Bernadette, gazing soulfully at each other, not noticing the bride and groom figures are now splattered with icing.
46	* At the end of ''Film/SweetHomeAlabama'', the happy couple has an impromptu wedding reception at the local bar/hangout. Since the original cake toppers [[DisposableFiance no longer fit]], one of their friends grabs a pair of [[SlapSlapKiss Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots]] as a substitute.
47	* In ''Film/TheWeddingSinger'', after the botched wedding at the beginning of the film, best man Sammy observes that the bride cake topper is missing and only the little groom is left standing there alone. The real groom, Robbie, has taken the bride figure and is sitting on the porch staring at it in his hand.
48	[[/folder]]
49
50	[[folder:Literature]]
51	* In one of the ''Literature/TheBabySittersClub'' books, Mary Anne's classmate mentions bride and groom cake toppers during a social studies class, "or maybe you could have a giant plastic wedding bell, right ..."
52	* ''Literature/ItAllStartedWithColumbus'':
53	-->Some think [UsefulNotes/HarryTruman's] opponent, Thomas E. Dewey, was defeated because he was compared to the little man on a wedding cake. This cost him the votes of hundreds of thousands of men who were unhappily married.
54	* The Creator/LarryNiven short story ''Literature/WhatCanYouSayAboutChocolateCoveredManholeCovers'' is set in part at a divorce party, where a couple is splitting up, but friendly. A black frosted divorce cake has the toppers facing away from each other.
55	[[/folder]]
56
57	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
58	* Oh, "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS4E9SomethingBlue Something Blue]]" from ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''...
59	-->'''Spike''': I don't like him. He's insipid. Clearly human.\
60	'''Buffy''': Ah ha! We can smear a little red paint on the lips. The blood of the innocent...\
61	'''Spike''': That's my girl!
62	* ''Series/Charmed1998'': In [[ClipShow "Cat House"]] Phoebe, Paige and the Villain of the Week get magically sucked into Piper and Leo's memories where the Villain accidentally destroys the cake toppers at their wedding. Once the spell is broken and everything appears to have been set right, the camera cuts to a now empty shelf where the figures used to be displayed. At the end of the season Piper and Leo are forced apart when he's [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence promoted to an Elder]].
63	* ''Series/{{CSINY}}'': In the B-plot of "[[Recap/CSINYS03E07 Murder Sings the Blues]]," the head of the bride from a wedding cake topper is found lodged in the victim's throat. He was choked to death with it.
64	* When Daphne left Donny on ''Series/{{Frasier}}'', he took the male half of the cake topper back to his office and talked to it about how they'd both been abandoned. He even names it "Mr. Chump" and [[CompanionCube insists Frasier treat it as if it were alive]].
65	-->'''Title Card:''' Guess who's short, wears a tuxedo, and has frosting all over his feet?
66	* On one episode of ''Series/TheFreshPrinceOfBelAir'', Will is pretending to be the voice of a Barbie doll-sized bride cake topper who says she'll marry Carlton... who he then places on the table and is the actual size of a normal male sized groom cake topper, all to mock his height.
67	* The '90s anthology series ''Series/TheHitchhiker'' had an episode, "Shattered Vows", where a ceramic figurine of a couple ends up having voodoo-doll properties: we first find out when it's used as a cake topper and the heat of the candles makes the real couple break out in fevers.
68	* In ''Series/ModernFamily'', Cam's dad made a topper for his wedding with Mitchell. Mitchell is not fond of it because of the way he is portrayed (he's FootPopping, for one thing) and tries to get rid of it.
69	* ''Series/MyNameIsEarl'':
70	** Joy and Darnell had an interracial couple on top of their cake (because they are). Oh, and the "cake" was made out of alternating layers of Twinkies and Hostess Cupcakes.
71	** When Joy was married to Earl, they didn't have a real wedding cake (due to their wedding being a drunken {{Elopement}} in Las Vegas), but Earl ''did'' put on a hairnet and infiltrate a bakery when they got back to Camden, and [[FiveFingerDiscount brought home the top layer of somebody's wedding cake for Joy]], complete with generic wedding-cake topper. [[spoiler: The cake gets eaten by Randy when he's drunk and placed on a mound of cat turds, much to the amusement of Earl and the ire of Joy.]]
72	* ''Series/OneDayAtATime2017'': Penelope recalls how her mother Lydia put a figurine of HERSELF on her daughter’s wedding cake. [[BrickJoke In the same episode, Lydia reveals that she planned to do the same to her grandson’s wedding cake, too.]]
73	* One of the intros to ''Series/PennAndTellerBullshit'' includes a scene where a Bride and Groom are placed on the top tier of a cake... then two Grooms on the next tier, two Brides on another, and finally Three Brides and Two Grooms.
74	* In the "December Bride" episode of ''Series/{{Roseanne}}'', Roseanne explains to Leon, who is getting married to his longtime boyfriend Scott and whose wedding she organized, that since she couldn't find two grooms, that she broke off the bride from a usual man and woman topper and replaced her with a male action figure from the movie ''WesternAnimation/{{Pocahontas}}''.
75	* In ''Series/RumpoleOfTheBailey'', Claude and Phyllida Erskine-Brown's topper at the end of "Rumpole and the Course of True Love" features the groom in a barrister's gown and clerical bands and the bride in a wedding dress--and both in barristers' wigs. Later, when Sam Ballard got married to "Matey" (the Matron of the Old Bailey nurses), the topper had a man in a barrister's wig and a woman with a nurse's hat.
76	* There was a joke on ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'' where Turk made a huge deal about the cake place not having Black/Latina cake-topper couples. The offer to touch them up with chocolate icing... [[{{Blackface}} didn't go over well]]. He's annoyed with her, so he's actually looking to make a scene.
77	[[/folder]]
78
79	[[folder:Music]]
80	* In the Concrete Blonde song "Carry Me Away":
81	-->And any promise we make is as easy to break\
82	As the plastic people on the wedding cake
83	[[/folder]]
84
85	[[folder:Puppet Shows]]
86	* In an episode of ''Series/FraggleRock'', Junior bakes a wedding cake for his parents' 513th anniversary. The toppers are actually PVC toys made in Germany by Schleich.
87	* One Swedish Chef sketch on ''Series/TheMuppetShow'' has him making an onion cake which has Miss Piggy and Kermit as the bride and groom. The cake sinks the moment he puts on the Miss Piggy figure.
88	[[/folder]]
89
90	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
91	* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' module I6 ''TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}}'': On the day Sergei was to marry Tatyana, Strahd murdered Sergei so he could have Tatyana for himself. The wedding cake is in a room in Strahd's castle: Tatyana's figurine is still on top of the cake, but Sergei's has been cast to the floor (presumably by Strahd).
92	[[/folder]]
93
94	[[folder:Video Games]]
95	* ''VideoGame/{{Octodad}}'': In the sequel's level "Wedding Bells", the second section of the level has a cake with Octodad and Scarlet figurines on it.
96	* ''VideoGame/{{Super Mario Odyssey}}'': Bowser's cake doesn't just have him and Peach, but a few Piranha Plant bouquets as well.
97	[[/folder]]
98
99	[[folder:Visual Novels]]
100	* The Perfect Ending in ''VisualNovel/{{Melody}}'' [[spoiler:shows custom cake toppers in the wedding between the protagonist and the title character.]]
101	[[/folder]]
102
103	[[folder:Webcomics]]
104	* ''Webcomic/SomethingPositive'': [[TokenWholesome Vanessa]] has the odd habit of dressing up as a {{Kaiju}} for everyday activities. When she and [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Davan]] get married, he wears his own version and they have little Gozilla cake toppers, seen [[http://somethingpositive.net/sp01072014.shtml here]].
105	[[/folder]]
106
107	[[folder:Western Animation]]
108	* ''WesternAnimation/BigCityGreens'': In “Flimflammed”, after scamming Gloria out of $200, Cricket spends the money on a wedding cake, claiming that it’s only because it was the biggest cake he could buy. When an angry Gloria points out the toppers (with Cricket as both groom and bride), he replies “Can’t I feel special on my big day?”
109	* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Disenchantment}}'''s first episode, Zog (father of the [[ArrangedMarriage unwilling]] bride), doesn't seem to understand the point of these:
110	-->"And neither of these looks [[ItsAllAboutMe like me]]. Make them both look like me, then get rid of one!"
111	* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', Peter sets up Meg for a ShotgunWedding, after she believes that she's pregnant. While planning the wedding, Peter says that the store was all out of little cake figurines, so instead he got a toy version of ''WesternAnimation/TheIronGiant'' and one of those courtroom rag dolls where they ask the children just where the suspect touched them.
112	* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'', Leela was engaged to a fellow Cyclops [[spoiler:[[NinjaPirateZombieRobot shapeshifting grasshopper]]]] and the top of the wedding cake shows the bride on her knees polishing the groom's shoes. [[JerkAss It more or less defines the way he treated her]].
113	* When ''WesternAnimation/HarveyBirdmanAttorneyAtLaw'' decides to marry his ReallyGetsAround girlfriend Gina (AKA Comet Girl from the original show), the cake has one bride and about 6 grooms because Gina is ''also'' marrying her other boyfriends, including Phil Ken Sebben, Peanut, and the Zen Bear.
114	* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': During "A Canterlot Wedding", we see that Equestrian weddings use the little cake toppers as well. Spike can't stop playing with Shining Armor and Cadence's.
115	* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' had Marge and Homer find their old wedding cake top with the figures still on it. Homer speculates that they have "wee little parties" at night, and then attempts to quickly open the freezer and catch them in the act. Another episode has Homer eat the couple on top of Apu and Manjula's cake, believing them to be made of icing.
116	** In the episode "A Fish Called Selma", Homer tells Marge that he stole the (plastic) cake topper from Troy and Selma's cake after their wedding and then proceeds to attempt to eat it, which he can't, so he ends up ''[[TooDumbToLive swallowing it whole.]]''
117	--->'''Homer:''' Mmm, pointy.
118	** In "The Simpsons Tall Tales," a ShotgunWedding has a cake with a bride figure, a groom figure, and a father figure holding the groom at gunpoint.
119	* On ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'''s ThanksgivingEpisode, the [[WizardsFromOuterSpace Gems]], [[HumansThroughAlienEyes who don't really understand human customs]], try to combine a bunch of different Earth celebrations together, including a wedding. Pearl declares that the whole group will "marry each other," taking out a cake with solitary brides and grooms stuck haphazardly all over.
120	* ''WesternAnimation/WackyRaces'': In "Dash to Delaware", Dick Dastardly lured Peter Perfect and Penelope Pitstop into a bakery, where he somehow managed to put them into the top of a wedding cake and dressed like bride and groom.
121	[[/folder]]
122
123	[[folder:Other]]
124	* The DVD cover of ''Gay Weddings'' [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gaywedbravo.jpg here]].
125	* Creator/GahanWilson drew a cartoon where two chefs are looking at a wedding cake with two guys on it. One chef doesn't look too happy, but the second tells him, "Times change."
126	* LEGO Artist Eric Harshbarger has created many wedding items out of LEGO bricks, including cake toppers. Read about them [[http://www.ericharshbarger.org/lego/wedding_cake.html here]], see the cake [[http://www.ericharshbarger.org/lego/images/wedding_cake/cake_3.jpg here]], and see a closeup of the LEGO cake topper [[http://www.ericharshbarger.org/lego/images/wedding_cake/cake_0.jpg here]].
127	* Along with same-sex and interracial cake toppers, there are now ones where one-half of the couple is being forcibly dragged by the other. Or shackled to them.
128	* When Steve Purcell was married, he had the cake-toppers made in the likeness of [[ComicBook/SamAndMaxFreelancePolice his creations]] dressed as [[HoYay newlyweds.]]
129	[[/folder]]

Context Main / CakeToppers