She's almost ready for the real thing.
The Kissing Warm-Up is when a character practices their smooching skills alone. It mostly occurs with young characters who have not had their First Kiss. It may involve kissing your hand, the mirror, a stuffed animal, a live animal, or anything handy.
Frequently occurs in anticipation of a make-out party. Can turn into Cringe Comedy if another character catches them in the act.
If the kissing warm up is with a living person, it's a Practice Kiss. If the kiss is with a live animal who is sapient, you may be looking for Interspecies Romance.
Compare Test Kiss. Not to be confused with I Kiss Your Hand. See also Anticipatory Breath Spray and Anticipatory Lipstick.
Examples
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Film
- In Eighth Grade, Kayla's dad enters her bedroom unexpectedly as she is kissing her hand while watching social media videos of her crush, Aidan, and listening to Orinoco Flow by Enya, causing her to panic and throw her phone across the room, breaking its screen. Because Kayla is such a Phoneaholic Teenager the audience is then reminded of the incident through the rest of the film by the constant view of the broken phone screen.
- In Superstar (1999), Mary Katherine Gallagher makes out with two inanimate objects. In chronological order:
- A tree trunk.
- The pole of a stop sign.
Literature
- This is a minor plot point in Maoyu, as the very detailed body pillow of the Hero owned by the Demon King shows that she knew what he looked like way before they met in person. It helps that he finds out through a misfired Pensieve Flashback.
- In Noughts & Crosses, when Callum and Sephy are having their First Kiss, Sephy's internal monologue mentions that she has practised kissing with her pillow.
- In Xanth's Castle Roogna, Irene surprises Dor with a kiss at the end of the book. She mentions that it was better than the first time because she'd been practicing on a life-size doll of hers. However, she doesn't know that he was having an out-of-body adventure at the time and didn't experience the first kiss.
Live Action TV
- In a Burnistoun sketch, Johnny Wee Tollen's Boy taunts The Doberman by saying he's never kissed anyone. When the Doberman insists otherwise, Johnny Wee Tollen's Boy demands he prove it by making out with his hand.
- Doogie Howser, M.D.: Vinnie shows a 12-year-old female patient (who has a crush on Doogie) how to practice kissing by locking lips onto a window.
- Family Feud: once a family of women had to come up with answers for what one would practice their kissing on. They kept answering correct answer which surprised Steve Harvey.
- Bree from Lab Rats is called out for practicing kissing the wall. Justified, however, because none of the kids have had much human contact and are really bad at social interaction.
- In My So-Called Life, Danielle catches Angela kissing a mirror.
- Referenced in the Red Dwarf episode "Confidence and Paranoia" when Paranoia starts dredging up Lister's embarrassing adolescent memories.
- JD of Scrubs practices kissing with his stuffed dog.
- Justin goes through a whole kissing montage in one episode of Wizards of Waverly Place.
Theatre
- In the aptly titled play "How to Kiss a Girl", the main character is advised to practice on his hand. Naturally, his mom walks in.
Webcomics
- Everyday Abnormal #294
: Asuka wasn't kissing her hand. That would be weird. She wasn't thinking about a boy. And he definitely wasn't British.
Western Animation
- Referenced in the Adventure Time episode "The Enchiridion!". Finn opens the titular book to examine it and finds a page titled "Chapter 5: How to Kiss Princesses". Pausing the scene quickly reveals that the author recommends practicing on a Lip Monster beforehand.
- Doug of... well, Doug practices kissing on a balloon.
- Gravity Falls: Mabel attempts this in "Tourist Trapped" with a photo of Norman and a leaf blower set to reverse. Naturally, it gets stuck to her face.
- Hey Arnold! gives us the creepy yet hilarious kiss between Helga and her Arnold Stalker Shrine — made completely out of wads of his used gum.
- Infinity Train: While asking MT, a reflection who gained independence, about the details of her world, Jesse asks if somebody (not him) were to practice kissing in a mirror (not him) if their reflection would see it (again, not him). The answer is yes.
- In King of the Hill, Bobby practices kissing on Luanne's hairdresser dummy.
- Pepper Ann gets ready for her first unsupervised party by warming up on her hand, a watermelon, and a pillow.
- In Teen Titans Go!, Robin has the others practice kissing their hands in preparation for New Year's Eve. He draws Starfire's likeness on his own hand.
- In The Venture Bros., Dean practices by kissing his hand. When he later describes it as "practicing being a boyfriend", it's not taken the right way.
