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4[[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation/{{Storks}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_storksbar.png]]]]
5[[caption-width-right:350:[[Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail They can grip them by the husk.]]]]
6
7->'''Calvin:''' Dad, where do babies come from? Is it true a stork leaves them swaddled in a bundle on the front step?\
8'''Calvin's dad:''' In most cases, yes, but ''you'' were unceremoniously dumped down the chimney by a big, hairy pterodactyl.\
9'''Calvin:''' ''Cool!''\
10'''Calvin's dad:''' Explains a lot, doesn't it?
11-->-- ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes''
12
13For many years, when a kid whose parents didn't think they were ready for TheTalk asked the question "Where do babies come from?", a common answer was "the stork".
14
15For those wondering exactly how storks became associated with pregnancy: The tradition apparently started in UsefulNotes/VictorianBritain. The white stork was considered a symbol of happiness, fertility, and prosperity. Despite their large size, storks are also fairly unafraid of humans, and will readily nest on buildings unless disturbed. In Victorian England, they were even known to build their nests on top of chimneys, giving rise to the myth of storks dropping human babies down them to the hearth.
16
17The myth has mostly died down, to the point where [[UndeadHorseTrope TV is usually the only place you'll see kids who believe in "the stork"]]. Showing childbirth in the media hasn't been taboo since The50s, so most children know babies come from the mother's body, just not how it got there in the first place. But then again, [[FridgeLogic it's also never explained where storks get babies either]]. Nonetheless, the symbolism of storks and babies has persisted to this day, where the image of a stork with a bundled baby hanging from its beak is still a symbol of pregnancy, childbirth, and babies. In FunnyAnimal related works, this trope may be invoked in spirit by depicting anthropomorphic storks working as midwives or in maternity wards, making this a type of AnimalOccupationStereotypes.
18
19Occasionally overlaps with OneGenderRace as an explanation for how procreation can occur without both sexes present.
20
21The rival story that new babies were found under a gooseberry bush seems to have died out, though some guy named Xavier did make a small fortune with the mythology of [[Toys/CabbagePatchKids babies being grown from cabbages...]]
22
23Compare PelicanPackagePouch and FlyingPostman. Contrast CirclingVultures, for a bird associated with death rather than birth.
24----
25!!Examples:
26
27[[foldercontrol]]
28
29[[folder:Advertising]]
30* An ad for birth control has one of these walk up to a woman, who dismisses it with a gesture and walks off to consider vacations, new houses, and other options she can pursue because she's not pregnant.
31* A 2000 March of Dimes commercial promoting pre-conceptual nutrition and self-care, featured a stork wandering through an office building, with various female employees trying to hide from, shun, or [[MyBiologicalClockIsTicking attract the bird]] according to their respective wants. [[http://www.tvspots.tv/video/15675/march-of-dimes--stork Watch it here.]]
32* A cartoon stork with a [[Creator/MarxBrothers Groucho Marx]] voice is a long-time pitchman for Vlasic brand pickles (working off the theme of pregnant women's [[WackyCravings craving for pickles]]).
33* A number of Hallmark's new baby and baby's first Christmas ornaments have incorporated this theme.
34* A 1954 print ad for Du Pont Cellophane depicts a disturbing-looking stork holding a ''cellophane bag'' containing an infant.
35[[/folder]]
36
37[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
38* Toba Tatsuro, a new teacher at Kyosuke's school, introduced in ''Manga/KimagureOrangeRoad'''s volume 14, believes in this.
39* Cited in ''Manga/TheKurosagiCorpseDeliveryService'' as the reasoning behind the business's name: instead of the white stork that brings new life, they're the black heron ("kurosagi" = "black heron") that takes away the dead.
40* The ''Anime/CodeGeass'' parody comic "Legend of the Power Couple" (from the gag comic compilation Queen volume 1) has Suzaku and Euphemia believe in this as CharacterExaggeration PlayedForLaughs. Suzaku believes in the Delivery Stork, while Euphemia believes that babies come from cabbage patches, and Lelouch, standing nearby, has a look on his face that's the non-verbal version of a FlatWhat. Which gets even flatter and [[BuffySpeak what-ier]] when they hop in the Lancelot to search cabbage patches and stork habitats for babies.
41* In an epic variant, Mamoru of ''Anime/GaoGaiGar'' was found in the mouth of a giant robot lion. His mother has a recurring nightmare about the possibility of the lion coming back to reclaim him.
42* ''Manga/SayonaraZetsubouSensei'':
43** Flying delivery storks are a running gag. These have generally replaced aircraft in the background sky, and sound like them too.
44** In the same series there is a chapter based around white lies, in which Kafuka suggests changing white lies into reality. After Chiri overhears Majiru being told that a stork delivers babies, a news report about a stork literally delivering a missing baby is broadcasted.
45* In the ''Literature/SwordArtOnline'', DVD commentary "Sword Art Offline", Yui asks how human babies are made. To get out of telling her the truth, Kirito gives the stork explanation.
46[[/folder]]
47
48[[folder:Art]]
49* In the painting "Der Klapperstorch" (1885) by Carl Spitzweg, a stork carrying a baby is flying over a European small town, while three girls on the ground spread out their aprons, in the apparent fear or expectation that the stork will drop the baby.
50[[/folder]]
51
52[[folder:Comic Books]]
53* ''ComicBook/{{Asterix}} and Son'' shows that Obelix still believes this trope. At the beginning, he mentions a ([[DownplayedTrope slightly]] [[PsychicDreamsForEveryone prophetic]]) dream that a stork dropped a baby off on his and Asterix's doorstep. Much to his mild (and Asterix's not so mild) surprise, there really ''is'' [[DoorstopBaby a baby on the doorstep]]!
54* In ''Lupo Alberto'' (set in a WorldOfFunnyAnimals) the character Umperio is a stork out of job, and often torments Alberto and Marta because they're his only hope. He once tried to change his job, but delivering pizzas the same way he delivered children got him fired due to every single customer running at the sight of him, and he will ''not'' paint himself pink to pass himself off as a flamingo and get a job as a dancer in a nightclub (a relative of his did it, and it didn't end well).
55* ''ComicStrip/{{Nero}}'': Adhemar and Clo-Clo are both brought by a stork.
56* In Brazilian comic ''[[ComicBook/MonicasGang Penadinho]]'' (known in English as ''Bug-a-booo''), along with the comedic GrimReaper, Dona Morte (known in English as ''Lady [=McDeath=]''), there is a Stork who leads the reincarnation sector.
57* A baby [[Franchise/TheSmurfs Smurf]] is delivered by stork on a blue moon. Guess they really [[TheSmurfettePrinciple do only need one female]] after all.
58* In issue 12 of ''ComicBook/{{Urbanus}}'', Urbanus is bribed into marriage because he presumably impregnated a girl. Not understanding where babies come from, he panicks when he sees a truck with cabbages and blows it up. Then he spots a stork, and promptly beats it up. When he gets home, there is an entire swarm of storks, and he shoots at them with a cannon. Loaded with cabbages.
59* In the ''ComicBook/ZipiYZape'' story ''El tonel del tiempo'' ("The barrel of time"), the twins use the titular barrel to time-travel to the day they were born. They come out of the barrel as babies, with the stork holding both of them... and have to pull off one of their shenanigans to prevent their own delivery from suffering a last-minute change of destination.
60[[/folder]]
61
62[[folder:Comic Strips]]
63* A '40s ''ComicStrip/Blondie1930'' strip has Dagwood telling Cookie about this, but then [[http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/blondie/images/uc03237u.jpg Alexander butts in...]]
64* ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'':
65** One strip features Calvin hearing about and asking his father specifically about the stork. His father's response was that, yes, most babies were delivered by a stork, but Calvin was "unceremoniously dumped down the chimney by a big, hairy pterodactyl." Calvin is, needless to say, [[InsultBackfire thrilled]] (to his father's [[GenreSavvy lack of surprise]]).
66** In another comic, Calvin's dad informs him that kids come in kits (some assembly required) from Sears. Calvin is upset by this, but his father tells him not to worry as he was "a blue light special at K-mart. Almost as good, and a lot cheaper." Calvin is less than thrilled.
67* In ''ComicStrip/HagarTheHorrible'', Hamlet asks his mother The Question. She answers that the stork brought him. He wants to know about his big sister, and Helga gives the same answer. Then he asks about his dad, and Helga says: "Four '''big''' storks."
68* In ''ComicStrip/KrazyKat'', Coconino County has its resident baby-deliverer Joe Stork, who lives atop the Enchanted Mesa. He is older than all the strip's main characters, having delivered them as babies. In a running gag, characters struggle to fend off his deliveries; apparently, ''any'' two characters in a romantic relationship run the risk of getting a bundle dropped on them, which may in part account for the strip's lack of clear gender (one strip has Krazy loudly "breaking up" with Ignatz as the stork walks by for fear that he may take their relationship the wrong way).
69* ''Magazine/{{MAD}}'':
70** An article from several decades back compared sexual knowledge among youth of different generations. In the '50s, they show a whitebread kid talking with a greaser.
71--->'''Whitebread:''' But I thought the stork just brought the baby.\
72'''Greaser:''' Man, ain't you ever heard of sex? First, the man ''[whisper]'', then the woman ''[whisper]'', and then the two of them ''[whisper]''.\
73'''Whitebread:''' Then what?\
74'''Greaser:''' ''Then'' the stork brings the baby.
75** A Don Martin cartoon has a couple of kids pondering the situation. One says "Charlie says the Stork brought us." The other shrugs "Ecch, Charlie, what does ''he'' know!" -- then they both say "Hi, Charlie!" to a kid walking by with long skinny legs and neck, and a long pointy nose.
76* ''ComicStrip/{{Mafalda}}''
77** When Mafalda's mother warns her that a brother is coming, the children discuss a lot about the stork, including the fact that airplane delivery would be quicker.
78** In a later strip, Gus, the above little brother, comes across a very fat man at the beach: he pats him on the stomach and asks if there's a little stork on the way.
79** In yet another strip, Mafalda mocks [[WideEyedIdealist Miguel]]'s idea that he can get an honest answer about the UsefulNotes/VietnamWar from his parents, saying they'll just start talking about storks.
80---> '''Mafalda:''' [[DiscussedTrope When a parent has no idea how to explain something, there's always a stork involved]].
81* Parodied in a ''ComicStrip/{{Nemi}}'' strip. The father of the kid she babysits pays her to tell his son about the birds and the bees, and she sits him down and tells him various facts about birds and bees.
82[[/folder]]
83
84[[folder:Fan Works]]
85* ''Fanfic/EmpathTheLuckiestSmurf'': Purposely subverted by stating that the Smurfs in the series reproduce physically. A stork does appear in the series to deliver Baby Smurf, but it is revealed that Baby Smurf came from Smurfling Island, and from parents on the island where nobody ages. In-universe, it's suggested that Creator/{{Peyo}} must have {{Bowdlerized}} the account when he created ''Franchise/TheSmurfs'' after getting his hands on the memory crystal that was given to him. In the adaptation of "The Smurfs And The Magic Flute", Peewit suggest this to be the case when he sees that the village consists of all male Smurfs at the time he and Johan first visited them.
86* ''Fanfic/HeroTheGuardianSmurf'': Played straight, except in the case of the births of Hero's two children Saviour and Miracle, who were both born physically through their mothers Wonder and Smurfette through a GRatedSex [[MysticalPregnancy fertility blessing]] given to them by Mother Nature.
87* ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12701258/1/How-Lynn-clogged-the-toilet-for-the-first-time How Lynn Clogged the Toilet For the First Time]]'' (based on ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse''): Set when Rita was pregnant with Lucy, and has Lynn Sr. telling his kids that the stork will soon bring another baby. The kids are wondering why Rita is sleeping a lot (she's having a "lethargic pregnancy"), and Lynn ''Junior'', who was five at the time, thinks it's because when the stork arrives, Rita will have to wrestle it, so she needs to rest up.
88* ''Fanfic/ReactWatchBelieveYikes'': As part of exaggerating her naïveté, Ruby still believes in this. And her interpretation of abortion is the stork being shot. Yang promises to set her straight at some point.
89* At one point in ''Fanfic/BeingFemale'', [[Franchise/HarryPotter Umbridge]] takes over the wizarding world, and decides to [[NoSexAllowed ban sex]]. She adds, "From now on, all babies will be delivered by storks."
90* ''Fanfic/EverythingChangesMilkywayScribbles'': At age 9, Ash still thinks a Pidgeot dropped him at his parents' door.
91* ''Fanfic/MyAbominableMonsterClassmatesCantBeThisCute'': Weiss believes that babies are delivered by snipe. Jaune sets her straight.
92* ''Fanfic/AMoonAndWorldApart'': Jokingly referenced by Pinkie in chapter 5, when she pops up in front of a ''very'' startled Sunset, resulting in the following exchange:
93-->'''Sunset Shimmer''': "Where'd you even come from?"
94-->'''Pinkie Pie''' (giggling): "Mom and Dad always said the stork brought me," "But Granny Pie set me straight on that."
95* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13743198/1/Stork-Delivery-Service Stork Delivery Service]]'' magical babies have to be specially ordered from storks.
96* [[https://youtu.be/sZx76ptI3fY This]] ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' fan comic sees someone claim that babies are delivered by [[FlyingPostman Pelippers]].
97* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14142609/28/The-Betrothal-Contract-of-1926 The Betrothal Contract of 1926]]'' pureblood wizard parents tell their children that the thunderbird brought them.
98* ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8557645/7/Her-Choices Her Choices]]'':
99-->'''Percy:''' Mom, where do babies come from?\
100'''Sally:''' Babies are the most innocent beings on this earth. So pure white storks bring them to their parents door-step.\
101'''Percy:''' Mom, we're not that young.\
102'''Sally:''' Alright, I'll tell you after you turn thirteen.
103[[/folder]]
104
105[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
106* ''WesternAnimation/{{Dumbo}}'' starts out with storks delivering baby animals to their mothers while their circus is headquartered in Florida for the winter. The babies have no (visible) fathers except for the tiger cubs.
107* One is featured in one of the plays from ''WesternAnimation/TheBigBadFoxAndOtherTales''. In it, he [[spoiler:fakes his injury to laze around, leaving other animals to find the baby a home]]. The [[AnimatedActors actor]] who plays him seems to be a similar JerkAss, brushing off his co-worker's concern and raving about an avant-guard play he'll be featured in.
108* In another Pixar film, ''WesternAnimation/Cars1'', judging by a painting on one of the courtroom's walls, it's implied that cars and other vehicles reproduce by getting baby cars that roll down to Earth on a golden highway coming from an ivory and gold factory in Heaven.
109* Disney's ''WesternAnimation/{{Dinosaur}}'' actually did this with a Pteranodon who apparently found Aladar's egg floating in a river after an Oviraptor accidentally dropped it while stealing it from Aladar's ''biological'' mother.
110* In the WesternAnimation/{{Pixar short|s}} that accompanied ''WesternAnimation/{{Up}}'', ''WesternAnimation/PartlyCloudy'', this trope was used, and the question as to where the storks obtained the babies they delivered was answered: from living clouds who make them out of cloud fluff. The stork the short focuses on has the bad luck to work with a [[DarkIsNotEvil storm cloud]] who only makes dangerous animals. They're good friends, but the friendship gets ''really'' strained after the cloud makes a porcupine. And then Mr. Stormcloud shows off his (unfinished) ''[[ThreateningShark shark]]''... and the stork flies off to another cloud, only to return with a set of football armor, ready for more.
111* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Storks}}'', after delivery storks decide on doing a less difficult job, they wind up going into the online delivery business. Part of what motivated the storks into giving up the job was a stork going rogue and trying to keep a baby, which led to the homing beacon being destroyed. The plot revolves around what happens when the girl they've been forced to raise and the stork supposed to fire her accidentally reactivates the old Baby Making Machine and have to get a new baby girl to her home. The storks have also updated their delivery mechanisms and do pods rather than swaddles. [[spoiler:Events ultimately lead to them going back to their original mission of baby delivery, complete with the classic swaddles.]]
112[[/folder]]
113
114[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
115* Parodied in ''Film/AddamsFamilyValues'', as Wednesday and Pugsley sit in the waiting room while Morticia is in labor:
116-->'''Little Girl:''' And then Mommy kissed Daddy, and the angel told the stork, and the stork flew down from heaven and left a diamond under a leaf in the cabbage patch, and the diamond turned into a baby!\
117'''Pugsley:''' Our parents are having a baby too.\
118'''Wednesday:''' ''(dramatic zoom in)'' They had ''sex''.
119* The Spanish film ''Adiós, Cigüeña, Adiós (1971)'' (which means "Goodbye, Stork, Goodbye") is all about a gang of Spanish children stoutly defying this trope by working out the facts of life for themselves as they help their friends Arturo and Paloma through their TeenPregnancy. At various points in the movie, several of them express their irritation at adults for thinking they'd actually fall for the old myth about storks bringing babies.
120* Used as the basis of an in-universe joke in the film ''Film/ChildrenOfMen'':
121-->'''Jasper:''' So they call together all the great scientists, all the philosophers and thinkers, to ask the big question: why can't women have babies anymore? And all through the talk, there's one man in the corner who says nothing, just eats his dinner in a very loud fashion. And eventually the speakers get tired of the sound of his chewing, so they ask him from the podium, "If you deserve to be here, what do you think the answer is?" And he looks up, and says, "I don't know. But this stork is delicious!"
122* Referenced in ''Film/{{Flubber}}''. Stork is [[spoiler:Weebo's last word before dying. It turned out to be the name of a file on Brainard's computer that contained a final message from Weebo as well as plans for a new model, which she calls her daughter, making the file name "Stork" a MeaningfulName]].
123* There's also a strange (even for him!) Dr. Seuss book and film entitled ''The Hoober-Bloob Highway'' in which new babies are sent from ''space'' down a magical spiral-shaped highway. Before they're sent down, a creature named Hoober-Bloob lets them choose what species they want to be born as, where they'd like to grow up, and then gives them a briefing to prepare them for life. This is undoubtedly the most convoluted fictional answer to the question "Where do babies come from?"
124* In [[TheFilmOfTheBook the live-action movie]] of ''Film/HowTheGrinchStoleChristmas'', Who babies (and the Grinch) are shown floating into Whoville in baskets. Oddly enough, one Who notes that his new son bears [[StrongFamilyResemblance a strong resemblance]] to [[MamasBabyPapasMaybe his wife's boss]]...
125** The Grinch himself arrives during what appears to be a "key-party."
126* The "Every Sperm Is Sacred" scene in Creator/MontyPython's ''[[Film/MontyPythonsTheMeaningOfLife The Meaning of Life]]'' starts with a stork dropping a baby down the chimney. Inside the house, it then falls out from under the mother's skirt. The beleaguered woman just glances up and asks one of the dozens of kids to pick it up.
127* Alluded to in ''Film/MotherGooseRockNRhyme'' when Gordon Goose asks the Old Woman who Lives in a Shoe why she has so many children. The woman suggests that it could be that the stork likes her very much.
128[[/folder]]
129
130[[folder:Literature]]
131* ''Pat of Silver Bush'', (by the author of ''Literature/AnneOfGreenGables'') features Judy spinning a homegrown yarn to Pat: Judy says she's going to find Pat's little brother or sister in the parsley bed.
132** The ''Literature/AnneOfGreenGables'' books contain a reference to the stork, too. It was used as a euphemism for the birth of Anne's son, Jem. It was a bit oddly placed, since [[spoiler:Anne had already given birth -- albeit prematurely and the baby did not survive -- and though it wasn't gory, it was plainly written.]]
133* In the short story ''The Conjure Brother'', the young girl protagonist rejects the idea that babies come from storks. Instead she believes her friend's theory, that to get a baby a mother must eat until she becomes extremely fat. Then she goes the hospital to lose the weight and from there she can choose a baby.
134* The ''Series/DoctorWho'' Literature/EighthDoctorAdventures novel ''The Crooked World'' takes place on a planet that's like [[WesternAnimation a children's cartoon]]. They have [[WhatIsThisThingYouCallLove no concept of sex]], and Fitz (who's a little bit of a LovableSexManiac) takes it upon himself to try explaining to the GirlOfTheWeek. She only understands it in terms of making babies, which is done on this planet by writing a letter to the stork, and gets confused by his explanation and even more confused when Anji tries to explain his explanation, and decides Fitz would probably appreciate it if she wrote to the stork. He gets kidnapped and the stork has a devil of a time trying to find him, and by the time it finds him, it has [[WildChild dropped the baby into the jungle to be raised by friendly wolves]] and ends up delivering him a [[CartoonBomb bomb]] instead, which he seems about as (un)happy about as he would have been about a baby. One of the villains who has kidnapped him comments, when the "baby" is dropped into his lap, that if he'd [[StealthPun written to the stork in French]], the stork wouldn't have known what he meant and wouldn't have delivered it.[[note]]In case you're not up on your outdated euphemisms, a "French letter" means a condom.[[/note]]
135** In the {{Novelization}} of ''The Twin Dilemma'', the Sixth Doctor, temporarily under the delusion he's Literature/SherlockHolmes, claims that as a child his parents told him the stork delivered babies, but he found this hard to believe as babies were common in London, but storks were rare. Upon hearing that a neighbour was about to have a baby, he observed the house closely, and didn't see a single stork. He did see a doctor entering with a black bag; obviously ''he'' had brought the baby.
136* Averted in one of Creator/JamesThurber's ''Fables for Our Time'', in which a stork tells his wife that the reason he's out all night is that he has to deliver human babies. (He's really out partying.) She finds out that it isn't true and greets him with ''Hello, phony obstetrician!'' and crowns him with a chimney brick.
137* On the cover of the Choose Your Own Nightmare book ''The Haunted Baby,'' the eponymous character is being carried by a raven instead of a stork.
138* One book designed for teaching kids the "facts of life" is called ''It's Not the Stork!''.
139* In ''Literature/TheLittleWhiteBird,'' by ''Literature/PeterPan'' author J.M. Barrie, protagonist Captain W[[SpellMyNameWithABlank --]] informs David that all children used to be birds, and that David himself was a missel-thrush. Did you ever see a bird land in an empty perambulator at Kensington Gardens? That's one debating if it wants to make the change. An island in the Gardens is where the birds' leader, Solomon Caw, receives requests from would-be parents.
140** This book also contains what's essentially an early draft of ''Literature/PeterPan'' as a [[ShowWithinAShow story within the story]]. In this version Peter ran away when he was only a week old and failed to realize that he was no longer a bird. He could fly fine until [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve he started to doubt that he could]], and then became stuck, physically a boy but mentally stuck between species.
141* Spoofed in the book ''Open Sesame'' by Creator/TomHolt, in which a fairyland "family planning" division works by shooting storks out of the air while they're delivering.
142* Parodied in "The Parenting Storks," a short story from Creator/DavidSedaris' ''Literature/SquirrelSeeksChipmunk'', with a stork who believes that baby storks are put into eggs by mice with magic pockets.
143* Referenced in Creator/JudyBlume's ''Literature/{{Superfudge}}'', where Peter's grandmother is dismayed that his parents told four-year-old Fudge the truth about how the baby got inside Mommy's belly. In her day, this trope was the standard Lie To Children.
144* In ''Literature/ToKillAMockingbird'', Dill tells Scout that you get babies from an island where they are gathered like flowers. Scout, who had previously been told that babies are dropped down the chimney by God, is skeptical.
145* In ''Literature/WhereWillyWent'', the opening lines explain that the stork did ''not'' deliver babies.
146* In Creator/PiersAnthony's ''Literature/{{Xanth}}'' novels, babies really ''are'' brought by the stork, though the parents still have to do a ritual to "summon the stork" (i.e. have sex. ''Sigh.'') This only seems to apply to humanoids; animals conceive and deliver physically, including intelligent species like centaurs. Dim-witted nymphs and satyrs "summon" with such frequency that the Storks screen their calls. One villain is rumored to have proven too foul that the storks wouldn't touch him; a basilisk did the deed.
147* In the fairy tales of Creator/HansChristianAndersen:
148** In "The Storks" (1839), a family of storks raising their young on a farmhouse roof are repeatedly taunted by a group of children with a mean-spirited mocking song about storks. When the young storks are finally grown, they take revenge on the children by flying to "the pond where all the little human babies lie until the storks come to take them to their parents", and picking up a little baby sibling for every child who did not mock the storks, but none for the children who mocked them. The boy who told the other children to stop taunting the storks gets both a brother ''and'' a sister, and the boy who always started the song gets a dead baby for a brother.
149** JustifiedTrope in "The Marsh-King's Daughter" (1858): A stork watches a princess being dragged into a bog lake by the Marsh King (a swamp creature similar to a nix). The stork keeps visiting the lake and eventually notices a water lily growing up from the lake; on the lily there forms a large bud which finally opens to reveal a human baby. Realizing that the baby is the daughter of the abducted princess and the Marsh King, the stork takes up the baby and delivers it to a childless family living nearby, by reaching through a window and laying it on the wife's chest while she is sleeping; the couple is happy to adopt the baby. The stork [[LampshadeHanging hangs a lampshade]] by musing that since people say he is bringing the babies, he might as well for once do it for real.
150* ''{{Literature/Unwind}}'' takes place in a future America where abortion has been outlawed, but mothers who don't want their newborn babies are legally allowed to drop them anonymously on the doorstep of another person, which is called "storking."
151[[/folder]]
152
153[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
154* On ''Series/AdamRuinsEverything'', one of these (a parody of the Vlasic pickles mascot) appears to Emily (who has already had her baby), and hands her a black rock painted with the words "Postpartum Depression." He also hands one to Murph, explaining that men can get PPD as well.
155* An early ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' episode has Buffy and Xander discovering Giles anxiously rehearsing asking Jenny out on a date, and proceed to give him unsolicited advice. Xander tells him "That business with the stork? It's just a smokescreen!" - Giles glares.
156* PlayedWith on an episode of ''Series/CallTheMidwife,'' when new midwife Valerie, a Poplar native, describes seeing the Nonnatus midwives biking around the neighborhood as a child. A day or so later, she'd hear that a relative or family friend had a new baby, and confesses she and her sisters used to think the midwives brought the babies ''with them'' in their large medical bags.
157* This might be referring to an episode of ''Series/TheCosbyShow'', when Cliff took new step-granddaughter Olivia to see his office. When she asked him what he did, he explained that he was a doctor who delivered babies. Olivia cemented her [[TheScrappy Scrappy]] status by proceeding to tell a grown man that "no you don't" and ''giving him a lecture'' on how the stork does all that, insisting that he gets the babies from "heaven", and that "they're all in a line", acting increasingly exasperated with him for not knowing all this.
158* ''Series/{{Frasier}}'': In one episode Martin starts reminiscing about how he used to get through stakeouts by picturing his wife waiting for him back home. Frasier and Niles strongly object to [[ParentalSexualitySquick hearing about their dad's fantasies]], leading Martin to joke that he and his wife found the boys in wicker baskets by the river during a church picnic.
159* '' Series/{{Friends}}'': Joked about in the extended cut of "[[Recap/FriendsS8E15TheOneWithTheBirthingVideo The One With The Birthing Video]]". Monica does not want to watch a birthing video with Rachel, because Monica already saw it and is too freaked out about what she saw. When Rachel remarks that Monica also wants to have kids, Monica answers: "I do, but the stork is gonna bring mine!"
160* Played With in a episode of ''Series/FullHouse''. When Michelle posed the question of where babies come from, Joey casually replies "Cleveland." Fortunately, Michelle had no follow-up questions.
161* In the ''Series/{{Glee}}'' episode "Sexy", [[TheDitz Brittany]] thinks she's pregnant because a stork built its nest on top of her garage.
162* Discussed in ''Series/{{House}}''. When House posits that the patient might have two diseases, his team counters that [[OccamsRazor one is simpler]]. To illustrate the point that one is not always simpler than two, House asks "what if I showed you a baby and told you that it's the product of either two parents or one stork?"
163* A first-season ''Series/MadTV1995'' sketch involved a couple going to a fertility clinic but not understanding what sex was. Turns out they "prayed to the magical stork." They were quite disgusted to learn the truth.
164* One ''Series/TheWhitestKidsUKnow'' sketch is about the other side of this -- apparently, the storks get the babies from a literal baby factory in the clouds (complete with what appears to be a moving assembly line, although the sketch only shows the final stop, at the guy who takes the babies from the line as they come in, hands it to the waiting stork, and tells the bird where to fly).
165[[/folder]]
166
167[[folder:Music]]
168* Jennie Tourel and Music/LeonardBernstein's "My Name is Barbara":
169-->I don't believe in the storks, either\
170They're all in the zoo\
171Busy with their own babies
172[[/folder]]
173
174[[folder:Theater]]
175* In ''Theatre/OnceUponAMattress'', the King gives TheTalk to the Prince entirely in mime, but despite his best efforts, his son doesn't quite get it, and so, in the end he makes motions suggesting a stork. The Prince, however, finally puts it all together and realizes that "it isn't the stork at all."
176* A reference to this is made in the ''Theatre/SeventeenSeventySix'' song "But Mr. Adams", mostly because 'stork' rhymes with 'New York' and the New York delegate is the one singing:
177-->'''Livingston:''' I've been presented with a new son by the noble stork/So I am going home to celebrate and pop the cork/With all the Livingstons together back in old New York.
178* In ''Theatre/SpringAwakening'' (which takes place in 19th century Germany) Frau Bergmann is still trying to use this story with fourteen-year-old Wendla[[note]]sixteen in TheMusical[[/note]], who becomes frustrated and insists her mother finally explain to her what ''really'' happens. She doesn't, and this ends very, VERY badly.
179[[/folder]]
180
181[[folder:Video Games]]
182* ''Alien Nations'' ([[MarketBasedTitle also known as]] ''The Nations'' or ''Aliens & Amazons'') is facetiously based on an interstellar version of this trope: in the first game, we're shown that the reason three very different sentient species share the same planet is because the storks who were tasked with delivering them to their respective worlds [[AlcoholInducedIdiocy stopped off at a bar]] while they were supposed to be on the job. They also double as a ProudMerchantRace and are the primary driving force behind commodity market prices and the transportation of goods.
183* The online game ''Baby Blimp'' is about helping storks deliver babies.
184* ''VideoGame/{{Coryoon}}'' has a stork that delivers powerup orbs.
185* ''VideoGame/CrusaderKings'', a game about family lines and whole dynasties, uses these as a symbol to indicate that a character is, well, expecting.
186* The opening narration of the Mushroom Forest in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyCrystalChronicles'' gives "sprouting from the Mushroom Forest" as the setting's fairy-tale story of how children come into the world:
187-->When I was a child, I once asked my mother, "Where did I come from?" She replied, "Why, we all sprouted in the Mushroom Forest, of course." Nightmares soon haunted my sleep. I dreamt I was lost among the toadstools. I awoke in tears, but felt the warmth of my mother's embrace as she comforted me. It is something I still remember to this day.
188* Baby was delivered this way in the beginning of ''VideoGame/GuardiansCrusade'' until the stork was attacked and dropped it in a nearby village.
189* The nursery building in ''VideoGame/LetsBuildAZoo'' has a large sign depicting a stork carrying a package.
190* In ''VideoGame/MsPacMan'', Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man have a baby delivered to them by the stork.
191* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'':
192** WordOfGod says this is how eggs are delivered to the [[HotSkittyOnWailordAction Day Care Center]]. The Pokédex also implies that Celebi may be the stork.
193** ''VideoGame/PokemonScarletAndViolet'' references the trope with Bombirdier, a white bird Pokémon who uses its long feathers as a makeshift delivery bag. Rather than delivering babies, however, it prefers to carry rocks (which it then drops on other people and Pokémon ForTheEvulz).
194* ''VideoGame/SeaOfStars'' uses a different bird. Solstice Warriors are born on the summer and winter solstices. On the day, The Great Eagle flies overhead, and a baby drifts down.
195* The set-up for ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld2YoshisIsland'' involves an attempted kidnapping of Baby Mario and Baby Luigi while they're being delivered by the stork. The stork is knocked out mid-flight by Kamek, kidnapping Baby Luigi, while the Yoshis find Baby Mario and vow to start a relay team to reunite the brothers. ''VideoGame/YoshisIslandDS'' also uses the stork part, except it adds a few things such as a stop sign called a 'Stork Stop' where the stork allows Yoshi to switch which baby he's carrying on his back, storks carrying the babies back home after being rescued from Bowser's Castle and the stork itself in various cut scenes. ''VideoGame/YoshisNewIsland'' has the stork accidentally [[HappyEndingOverride bring Mario and Luigi to the wrong house]], then get literally beaten up by Kamek mid-flight.
196* The online game ''VideoGame/SuperSizedFamily'' has a stork flying above the family's house carrying a swaddled baby in the title screen. The weird thing is, this baby never appears in the game.
197* In ''VideoGame/VivaPinata'', after two Piñatas romance, their eggs are delivered to them... not by an actual stork, but by a lady in a vaguely stork-shaped outfit named Storkos.
198[[/folder]]
199
200[[folder:Web Videos]]
201* Simon parodied this in ''WebVideo/YogLabs'' when they're trying to make a clone of him, which (due to the weird way the mod works) involves incubating an egg as the final step:
202-->'''Simon:''' When a mummy stork and a daddy stork love each other very much, they have sex, and a baby pops out. I think that's how it works.
203[[/folder]]
204
205[[folder:Webcomics]]
206* In ''Webcomic/BatmanAndSons'', Batman tells his kids that babies come from the cabbage patch. Only Tim really believes it, being the youngest; Alfred is frustrated that he insists on maintaining the lie, while Jason [[MouthyKid teasingly asks "Whose cabbage patch THIS time?"]].
207* In ''Webcomic/TheBirdFeeder'' [[http://thebirdfeeder.com/comic/155 #155]], "Baby Children," Darryl states that in the story he told his children, it was actually a heron.
208* In ''Webcomic/BrawlInTheFamily'' a stork with a bent beak and singed feathers quits the delivery service after having to deliver the Koopalings to Bowser. Yes, all seven at once.
209-->'''AltText:''' Oh wait, looks like you forgot one more kid. Have fun!
210* This is where babies actually come from in ''Webcomic/CucumberQuest'' according to WordOfGod.
211* Parodied in ''Webcomic/CyanideAndHappiness'' [[http://www.explosm.net/comics/1742/ here]] (where the delivery stork intends to feed the baby to its own young), and [[http://www.explosm.net/comics/1035/ here]] (where two storks are horrified to find themselves parents to a human baby). Later parodied in a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfvqihFzPAU short]] about a hunter deliberately hunting them down who has accrued a multi-ethnic family of children. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zClca05WJ48 In another short]] the factory where babies are made has problems with pelicans pretending to be storks to steal and eat the babies. TheStinger also shows a [[PaperThinDisguise crocodile wearing a fake beak]] trying to sneak away after it sees a pelican getting caught.
212* ''ComicStrip/ThePerryBibleFellowship'':
213** A stork delivery service representative is on the phone, taking complaints from a woman who hadn't received her baby. While he defends the reliability of his delivery storks, a glance at the line behind him shows a vulture in uniform amongst the storks.
214** Another comic features a stork delivering a litter of [[CuteKitten kittens]] to a pair of cats -- who all proceed to [[http://pbfcomics.com/comics/cats/ devour the poor bird.]]
215* ''Webcomic/SaturdayMorningBreakfastCereal''
216** In [[https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/2011-12-18 the strip for 2011-12-18]], the child gets a rather strange impression after hearing both about how the stork brings babies ''and'' that they're the product of a man and woman having sex.
217** In [[https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/2014-06-06 this one]], the mother who tells her daughter that babies come from the stork ends up getting lost in a rant on fighting the storks to learn the secret of reproduction from them. When the girl asks her mother about the "naked wrestling" her parents do every Thursday night, the mother answers that it's how they prepare for that war.
218** [[https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/2014-07-18 This one]] has a boy being told that babies are born when a stork is injected with the parents' parasitic larvae.
219* The parents in ''Webcomic/LitterboxComics'', a pair of cat people in a WorldOfFunnyAnimals, had their baby delivered by a stork. As in [[https://www.litterboxcomics.com/discharged/ a stork-man obstetrician]].
220* In ''Webcomic/TonyComics'', one comic has Tony's dad try to feed him the delivery stork excuse only for him to poke holes in it, leading to his dad to try to distract him with ice cream.
221[[/folder]]
222
223[[folder:Web Original]]
224* At the end of ''[[WebVideo/TheCartoonMan Journey of the Cartoon Man]]'', [[spoiler:a stork delivers a cartoon baby to Roy and Valerie.]]
225* ''Website/SCPFoundation'': Inverted with [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-918 SCP-918]], an abandoned mill that creates storks that steal infants and turns them into talcum powder.
226* Deconstructed in a scene from Creator/{{Nigahiga}} video "Censorship Makes No Sense!" where a little boy asks his father where babies come from. The father gives him the stork answer. The kid goes on to angst over how [[NiceJobBreakingItHero according to his dad's answer, he's adopted]]...for about three seconds because he then comes to the conclusion that he is also at least [[HalfHumanHybrid part stork]], which means he can fly. [[FromBadToWorse and then he jumps out the window]]
227* ''[[http://ursulav.deviantart.com/art/Where-Zombie-Babies-Come-From-6979550 Where Zombie Babies Come From]]'' by Ursula Vernon -- [[YouDoNOTWantToKnow if you think you want to know]]. Takes BlackComedy on the whole new flight level.
228[[/folder]]
229
230[[folder:Western Animation]]
231* In ''WesternAnimation/BabyFollies'', Storks are the primary air travel in Baby City. They deliver babies to Earth when it's their time to be "born" in a sense.
232* Subverted in a Creator/BillPlympton short. A boy is told by his mother that he came from the stork. At which point, he imagines the stork coming to his house...and having sex with his mom.
233* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Bonkers}}'', Toon babies come from the stork, though Miranda's disbelief strongly implies this isn't true for ''real'' babies.
234* The ''WesternAnimation/BunsenIsABeast'' episode "Adventures in Beastysitting" establishes that baby beasts are delivered to their parents by Monstorks.
235* Animated ''Toys/CabbagePatchKids'' adaptations gave them a stork caretaker named Colonel Casey.
236* ''WesternAnimation/{{Dilbert}}'' - Discussed. One episode has Dilbert listing this trope among the lies his mother told him when he was a child.
237-->'''Dilmom:''' He knows about the stork?\
238'''Dogbert:''' My fault. I let him watch the nature channel, he put two and two together.
239* In the ''WesternAnimation/DrZitbagsTransylvaniaPetShop'' episode "Pinball Wizard", Zombunny ends up taking the place of a baby yeti being delivered to his parents by a stork.
240* In ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'' episode "[[Recap/EdEddnEddyS5E6IAmCuriousEd I Am Curious Ed]]", when Sarah and Jimmy [[TheTalk ask the curious question]], innocent, naive Ed shows he strongly believes in this trope, to the point where he flies like a stork and drops Eddy down a chimney, to Double D's disbelief.
241* In ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'' movie ''WesternAnimation/AbraCatastrophe'', Timmy accuses his parents of always lying to him. In order to test this, they put on some home movies to see how long it takes for them to catch themselves fibbing. The first thing that comes up is them shouting "The stork!" at a younger Timmy.
242-->'''Timmy's Dad:''' Wow, that was quick!
243* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'':
244** Parodied in one episode. The woman is waiting in bed when a large stork arrives with his little bundle. When he opens it, however, it is just a red light bulb that he puts in her lamp. She asks, confused, "where's my baby?", to which he replies, in the mellow voice of Creator/MichaelClarkeDuncan, "Sweetie, [[BestialityIsDepraved you and me are gonna make the baby]]." Then he turns on porn music and struts over to the bed...
245** Subverted in another episode, where Stewie is taken away from the Griffins because Child Services mistakenly thinks they're bad parents. When Chris sees people getting babies from a man behind a window, he asks if ''this'' is where babies come from. Brian {{deadpan|Snarker}}s that, yes, it is, prompting [[SarcasmBlind Chris]] to point an accusatory finger at Lois and shout "You told me I came out of your vagina!"
246* ''WesternAnimation/HotelTransylvaniaTheSeries'' alludes to the idea of babies being delivered by storks by establishing that [[TheGrimReaper Death]] is also the personification of life, appearing as a stork when not wearing his shroud.
247* In the ''WesternAnimation/InvisibleNetworkOfKids'' episode "Lovestruck Stinkbomb" the teacher Ms. Macbeth tries to teach the kids about love. Unfortunately, it seems nobody ever taught her about it because she tells them babies come from the stork. Then the kids tell her that's not right and that [[DontBeRidiculous they come from cabbages]].
248* In the Disney cartoon, ''WesternAnimation/LambertTheSheepishLion'', the titular lion was supposed to go to Africa on a stork delivery (the same stork that appeared in ''WesternAnimation/{{Dumbo}}''), but is taken in by a ewe after none of the lambs delivered to flock choose her to be their mother.
249%%* A Harvey Comics cartoon feature showed a stork delivering a mother and a father in a bundle to a baby. Which one?
250* "WesternAnimation/LittleJohnnyJet", a baby plane is delivered by a stork-like helicopter.
251* ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' has featured storks delivering babies in dozens of cartoons:
252** The 1933 short ''Shuffle Off To Buffalo'' uses a stork delivery factory as the setting. [[ValuesDissonance Ethnic stereotypes abound,]] including a Jewish baby who's stamped "Kosher for Passover" (!!).
253** One famous sort-of-series during the 1950s involved a drunken stork, who would either be invited to drink with the new parents, or leave for his job directly from a roaring party at the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stork_Club Stork Club]]. Since the stork would frequently be so smashed on the job, he'd deliver a baby (and at least once, a full-grown WesternAnimation/BugsBunny) to the wrong parents, [[HilarityEnsues with hilarious consequences]]. Sometimes at least he had enough sense to realise he made a mistake and finds the real baby.
254** Earlier, Bob Clampett parodied the concept with typical manic gusto in "WesternAnimation/BabyBottleneck".
255*** It is worth to mention that on this cartoon a point was made about where do they get the babies: they're made in a factory.
256*** The storks there are overworked and unable to make deliveries, in which other animals pitch in to deliver the babies, and end up sending them to the wrong animal.
257* The Creator/{{Disney}} short "Mickey's Nightmare" involved an ImagineSpot by Franchise/MickeyMouse about getting married to Minnie Mouse. He's out watering the garden, and a Delivery Stork drops a baby down the chimney. Then more arrive and do the same. He rushes in with Pluto to find Minnie lying in their bed, surrounded by a large number of baby mice, much to Mickey's dismay.
258* The ''WesternAnimation/MightyMouse'' short "Raiding of the Raiders" plays with this. A stork shows up to deliver a sack to a bunny couple, but at the same time an owl doctor shows up to assist in extracting the baby bunnies from the sack, which is played like [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything a birthing scene]].
259* In ''WesternAnimation/MoralOrel'', Clay has a book called "Fake Facts of Life for Ages 5-15" that gives him varying responses of this trope's nature to give to a child, depending on the age of the child. The ones seen: babies are bowls of smiles that fell over in a garden, martians shot goo goo rays into mommy's tummy, fairies made them out of bubbles, they're made from skin that flaked off God's foot, babies are born when a stork gets pregnant, mommy swallowed a watermelon seed, and finally, God's chef injects mommies with his delicious glaze from his holy pastry bag. [[spoiler:That last one has unforeseen consequences as Orel's told this story, thinks ''he's'' God's chef, and proceeds to impregnate the neighborhood women so he could masturbate and still go to heaven.]]
260* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/MuppetBabies1984'', Fozzie has an ImagineSpot of storks in an airport-like operation. Unfortunately, when he and Rolf [[ScriptSwap accidentally mix up the destination cards]], many babies end up going to the wrong places.
261* A 1961 Paramount Modern Madcap had a lisping, kvetching stork ("I always get extra work!") having to deliver two babies--a human and a chimpanzee--to their respective families, but he accidentally switches them around. Hilarity ensues among the human father and the chimp baby.
262* ''WesternAnimation/ThePinkPanther'': In the 1978 short "Pink Daddy", a stork mistakenly delivers a baby crocodile, meant for the zoo at 919 Main St., to the Pink Panther's house at 616 Main St. after a thunderstorm [[SixIsNine loosens the house number sign to read 919]].
263* Occurs humourously in ''WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife''. Rocko is driving Heffer and Filburt to Mrs. Hutchinson's birth in the hospital. While on the highway, they see the delivery stork's van (because all characters, including the stork, are {{Funny Animal}}s) heading towards the hospital and race against the stork to reach the hospital first.
264* The early drafts of ''WesternAnimation/RudolphTheRedNosedReindeer'' included a delivery stork, but after the sponsors requested a CelebrityVoiceActor (Creator/BurlIves) narrate to increase appeal, the stork was cut to make room.
265* ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'':
266** When Angelica asks the big question, her parents first start to tell her the truth (babies start out as tiny eggs), then chicken out and give the "stork" response. She relays this information to the babies, who are terrified that the eggs their dads are using to cook are "stork eggs" that they need to protect. The episode ends with Susie coming over and whispering to Angelica where babies ''really'' come from, but she doesn't seem to believe it.
267** The season 1 episode "Special Delivery" has the Stu receiving a baby doll in the mail. The babies mistake it for a real baby. Phil and Lil get into an argument on whether babies come for the stork or [[{{Malaproper}} the store]]. Noticeably Chuckie states that [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness his mom]] said that babies come from the hospital, when future episodes show his biological mother died when he was very young.
268* Apparently Ned Flanders of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' fame has never told his sons about the Birds and the Bees, as when he and his children stumble upon the evolution display in the museum the kids ask if Maude was an ape, causing him to get flustered. He hurriedly went on about God and a stork, resulting in the duo kneeling down and praying to the stuffed stork in the corner. Ned is not amused. Another episode revealed Maude and Ned Flanders made sure the doctor delivering their sons was actually called Dr. Stork, so technically they wouldn't be lying to their kids.
269* As explained in the opening sequence of ''WesternAnimation/SkunkFu'', Skunk first arrived at the valley when a stork accidentally dropped him as a baby and he landed in Panda's arms who was praying to God to help defeat Dragon.
270* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'': Parodied in "Karen's Baby" where a ''robot'' stork arrives at Chum Bucket to deliver Karen's baby (a calculator).
271* Nina Paley made a short, ''The Stork'', using the theory to criticize global population trends.
272* The 1958 [[Creator/FamousStudios Noveltoon]] short ''Stork Raving Mad'' has a stork trying to delivery a baby on rush delivery, but the baby he's carrying tries to stop him because it doesn't want to do what babies do, like take baths and eat castor oil.
273* WesternAnimation/MGMOneshotCartoons: The WartimeCartoon "The Stork's Holiday" has a delivery stork complaining about a harrowing experience trying to deliver babies during the war, and [[TenMinuteRetirement contemplating retirement]] until [[TheManInTheMirrorTalksBack he gets a pep talk from his reflection]].
274* ''WesternAnimation/TexAveryMGMCartoons'':
275** The cartoon ''Farm of Tomorrow'' has the narrator announce "we crossed a stork with a long-horn elk, to accommodate you impatient newlyweds who are in a hurry for a big family." The stork in question flies across the screen with a baby dangling from its bill. The stork also has a large rack of antlers, with a baby hanging from each point. See it [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqX9w-0WEQ0 here]], at 5:30.
276* The Disney Junior series ''WesternAnimation/{{TOTS}}''(short for [[FunWithAcronyms Tiny Ones Transport Service]]) is about a company of storks delivering animal babies (even birds) to their parents. Specifically, it's about the first ''non-stork'' delivery team to take this job, a penguin and a flamingo.
277[[/folder]]

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