You Need a Breath Mint

"Oh wow, that was REALLY scary. And if you don't mind me sayin', if that don't work, your breath will certainly get the job done, 'cause you definitely need some Tic Tacs or somethin', 'cause your breath STINKS!"

— Donkey, Shrek

Stock Phrase used when someone comments on another one's bad breath. Variants to the phrase can include brushing your teeth, or with mouthwash.

See also Anticipatory Breath Spray. Compare Stink Snub.

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Examples:

Advertising

• Cited in a commercial for CreditStinks.com. "If someone told you you had bad breath, you'd brush your teeth."
• Spider-Man when interviewing the animated adoption of Sony's Godzilla for Fox Kids about his fire.
• Unspoken, but strongly implied, in an Orbit gum commercial set during a zombie apocalypse.
• Tic Tac candies had a long-running series of ads featuring someone or something with horrible breath that frightened everyone around them before someone said "Dude! Tic Tac!" and offered them a mint.
• An Invoked Trope in numerous mouthwash commercials as late as the 90s.

Animation

• Happy Heroes: In Season 8 episode 6, Huo Haha has a rancid smell coming out of his mouth and he apologizes to Big M. since he ate garlic earlier. Later in the same episode, Smart S. notices the smell, and Huo Haha apologizes again, realizing too late that he also forgot to brush his teeth. This second instance distracts Huo for long enough to give Careful S. a chance to grab the fire wand from him.
  Smart S.: Who ate a lot of garlic?!

Anime & Manga

• Digimon:
  • Tai in the Digimon Adventure movie makes a remark about Koromon's breath after he kisses him.
  • Digimon Adventure 02:
    • David and Veemon both say Tortomon has bad breath after he pants near them from exhaustion.
    • Later, with Arukenimon and Mummymon after he attempts to kiss her only to be swatted in the face by her:
      Arukenimon: Anyone ever tell you you have bad breath?!
      Mummymon: Why, that's impossible. I believe I brushed my teeth at least a year ago.
  • Takato from the dubbed version of Digimon Tamers mutters in his sleep "bad breath" after sleeping directly next to Guilmon's mouth. The original version didn't have Takato or Guilmon saying anything during this scene.

Comedy

• George Carlin:
  Carlin: No one is safe from halitosis; dad's got a little problem but his problem seems to be more paranoia than halitosis.
  Dad: (as played by Carlin) Mark, I don't know what it is...what I mean to say is that I don't know what it is. But I just can't seem to get close enough to make a sale. Now do you think that I could have (forceably) BAAAD BREEAATH??
  Mark: (Carlin again; coughs) It's possible, dad. You wilt the dandruff. You should try Listerine.
  Dad: Mr. Clean?!
  Mark: Listerine! Listerine kills germs!
  Dad: What have germs go to do with bad breath?
  Mark: Silly, germs have bad breath!
• Jeff Dunham:
  Peanut: [to Jeff] Dude, you need a Tic-Tac. Don't you know what you breath smells like?
  Jeff: What?
  Peanut: Dun-ham!! Dot com!
• Christopher Titus: "And Jesus, you need a Tic-Tac."

Comic Books

• In The Bad Eggs, Furman the Proto-Human tells Ript that his breath doesn't "smell like a field of lilacs" when the raptor tries to eat him, and after Ript remarks that the Proto-Humans smell like shit.
• In Elephantmen, Tusk saves an old woman from drowning and holds her in front of his face. Although she thanks him for saving her, she mentions how he has terrible bad breath as well.
• In the one-shot humor issue The Fantastic Four Roast, Ben "The Thing" Grimm says that there's only one person besides Reed with enough on the ball to sabotage the ceremony—Dr. Doom.
  Dr. Doom: (approaching the dias) WRONG, Camel Breath!!
• Implied in the final Marvel issue of Mighty Mouse. A typical episode of the show is being filmed at CBS studios with Scrappy Mouse filling in for Pearl Pureheart (who is boycotting the rest of the issue because of the appearance of Andrew "Mice" Clay"). The director (a caricature of series producer Ralph Bakshi) gives instructions:
  Director: Okay, we'll pick it up with the scene of Mighty and Pearl's kiss.
  Scrappy!Pearl: YUCK!!!
  Mighty Mouse: What? I flossed.
• Parodied in Le Petit Spirou, where the chronic general failure that is the P.E. teacher freshens his breath with a deodorant spray and his armpits with Tic Tac mints.
• The Powerpuff Girls: In "Pizza My Heart" (issue #41), Buttercup is addicted to garlic. Her garlic breath causes everyone—even an invading monster—to evade her. When an invading dragon steals her garlic necklace, she tries to attack and is knocked into a formula vat at a mouthwash factory. Buttercup defeats the dragon with refreshed breath and comes to her senses.
• In Rexodus, when Amber first meets Kelvin, she thinks he's just an animatronic. It isn't until after she notices and comments on his bad breath and drool that she begins to realize he's real.
• In Violine, Violine tells the captain of the oil tanker to "clean his tanker" when smelling his breath, after remarking on the smell of the oil tanker itself.
• In Uncanny X-Men #423, Jubilee's response to being told by Wolverine that she was just revived after being crucified, is "You ever hear the words Mouth Wash?" In his review, Linkara responds with "You ever hear you just came back from the dead and no one is the slightest bit overjoyed or asking about the theological implications of all this?" Well, it is the X-Men.

Comic Strips

• 9 Chickweed Lane
  Seth's Boyfriend: I'd be more inclined to dish the dirt if you'd stop lunching on garlic pizza.
• A Garfield strip shows Garfield wondering how to tell Jon that he has bad breath. He approaches him carrying a breath mint that's bigger then he is and offers it to him. Other strips have jokes either on Odie's breath, or Garfield distressing his house mates after eating something particularly vile.
• Sherman of Sherman's Lagoon is noted several times to have bad breath. In one strip, Ernest notes how he's never seen Sherman brush his teeth. Sherman explains that since sharks' old teeth are constantly being replaced by new ones, they don't need to brush their teeth.
  Ernest: New teeth, old breath.
  Sherman: Is that a hint?
• Zits: In this strip, Jeremy passes on Hector's offer a breath mint, and then his breath causes Sara to faint. He then turns back to Hector and says "On second thought, I'll take that breath mint".

Fan Works

• Lucy's Secret: Lucy shudders when she smells Huck's bad breath, wondering if he hasn't brushed his teeth in days.
• In Pokémon Reset Bloodlines, Clair apparently has gotten a bit of a reputation of this due to the fact she likes eating garlic, though these are mostly rumors spread by challengers who lose to her (and Whitney).
• There are dozens of characters from What Lies Beyond the Walls who have horrible breath, and many characters outright tell them so. Even some of the hares in the Long Patrol (who are usually clean) care little about their oral hygiene.

Films — Animated

• The Leopard from Animals United, whom Charles knows is a carnivore after being grossed out by his "unpleasant breath."
• During "Fixer Upper" in Frozen, the trolls mention how Kristoff always ends up sort of smelly no matter how well he washes (word of Jennifer Lee is that he reeks of Sven) as they ask Anna what's turning her off from dating him. Earlier, when Kristoff and Anna first meet at Wandering Oaken's Trading Post & Sauna, Kristoff gets up close to Anna (as he's trying to get some carrots from a shelf Anna is standing in front of) and she almost promptly turns her head away from him as if reacting to the smell.
• In Hoodwinked!, the Wolf is poorly impersonating Red Puckett's grandmother. As she pokes holes in his disguise, he gets up close to her and makes a last-ditch effort to get answers out of her, prompting Red to respond, "Oh, Granny! What bad breath you have!"
• Ice Age:
  • The Meltdown: When Crash and Eddie try to save an unconscious Sid from drowning, one of them grabs him by the mouth and opens it, causing one of them to say, "You really need to brush."
  • Adventures of Buck Wild: Just before Crash and Eddie venture back to the Lost World, one of Orson's two raptors sneaks up on them and tries to eat them. Eddie, unaware of its presence, gets a whiff of its breath and groans, mistakenly telling Crash, "You gotta brush more."
• Master Shifu in Kung Fu Panda tells Po not to stand so close to him so he won't smell his breath.
• Timon tells Simba in The Lion King 1 ½ to aim his foul morning breath in a different direction after he yawns in his face.
• Subverted in Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas, when Santa yawns in Louie's face, causing him to recoil. He suddenly says that his breath smells like peppermint and mocha.
• The Princess and the Frog has this exchange:
  Louis: You okay, li'l bug?
  Ray: I'm fine. Just your breath done near killed me to death.
• Happens subtly in Roadside Romeo, when Romeo gets a whiff of Chhainu's breath and waves a paw in front of his nose.
• Nonverbal, but Darwin in Rugrats Go Wild! clearly can't stand Spike's breath when he's yelling at him, and repeatedly waves a hand in front of his face and tries to get away from him.
• The wolf in The Rugrats Movie is stalking Angelica and Spike. Angelica, oblivious to the wolf, smells its breath and thinks it's from Spike. Spike notices the vicious wolf, and quickly manages to drag the unsuspecting Angelica out of the wolf's clutches.
• In Shrek, after Shrek roars at Donkey to try and scare him, Donkey says the page quote above. Inverted when Donkey woos Dragon, where he instead comments there is a minty freshness.
• In Toy Story 2, while trying to sneak past a sleeping Al, Woody ends up standing in front of his face right as he burps, making Woody gag.
• In Treasure Planet, we get Jim doing this while Mr. Scroop is trying to scare him into minding his own business.
  Jim: Too bad my nose is working just fine.
• Wreck-It Ralph: While not word-for-word, Vanellope, King Candy, and Sour Bill have commented on Ralph's halitosis. Especially Sour Bill, right after Ralph puts him in his mouth. And King Candy notably calls him an "halitosis-ridden warthog".

Films — Live-Action

• Angel: During their highly argumentative game of cribbage, Solly blows cigar smoke in Mae's face to distract her. Mae says that it is not the smoke she objects to, but Solly's breath.
• The Big Red One. The Sarge gets snogged by a German doctor while held prisoner in Tunis. Sarge chokes him until he desists.
  Sarge: I can understand you being horny, Fritz, but you've got bad breath.
• Weaponized bad breath also occurs in Blazing Saddles, with Gabby Johnson during the big brawl in Rock Ridge.
• Children of Men: Patric of the Fishes attempts to intimidate Theo in the van by describing how they'll be watching him constantly. Theo, whose head is under a bag, simply replies "Jesus, your breath stinks", to which Patric, taken aback, lamely replies "No, it doesn't."
• Émile in La Cité de la peur
  "Take a piece of gum, Émile."
• In Code Name The Cleaner, Jake tells the Big Bad that his breath "smells like ass" after he angrily demands information from him.
• Holly from Die Hard 2 advises Dick Thornburg to use stronger mouthwash after he gets too close to her a few times.
• Draco from Dragonheart, when Bowen says that his breath is foul after sitting in his mouth for several hours.
• Lucky from the first Dr. Dolittle film, after he barks next to Rodney.
  Rodney: You know, a Tic-Tac wouldn't kill ya.
• Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves: At the movie's climax, as Edgin is pretending to be caught in a time stop to distract Sofina delivering some evil gloating, he breaks the pretense to tell her that her "breath smells like... old clothes." No surprise here, since she revealed herself to be undead.
• In The Enforcer, Harry Callahan tells Lieutenant Briggs, after Briggs gives Harry a too close dressing down, "Your mouthwash ain't cutting it".
• In Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties, the titular cat runs into Prince towards the end of the movie and thinks he's merely looking at a reflection of himself, leading to a Mirror Routine. He finds out that his "reflection" is actually a different cat when he exhales in Prince's face, which causes him to faint.
• Godzilla from Godzilla (1998), after he roars in Nick's face.
• Eddie Murphy's character does this to a biker in The Golden Child:
  Chandler Jarrell: Hey, hey, hey... In my pocket, there's a whole thing of Tic-Tacs. Take as many as you want.
• The Big Bad in Good Burger threatens Ed while standing too close to his face. Ed calmly tells him afterwards that he needs a Tic-Tac.
• Hercules Returns. Brad McBain is fighting with Corrupt Corporate Executive Michael Kent who's trying to stop the movie.
  Kent: I'm going to chew you up and spit you out, you little turd!
  McBain: Well if that's any indication of your dietary habits it certainly explains your breath.
• Hocus Pocus: After the newly-risen zombie Billy Butcherson has the chance to insult his lover-turned-murderer Winnie like he's wanted to for a long time:
  Billy: [to Winifred] Wench! Trollop! You buck-toothed, mop-riding, firefly from Hell! (aside to Max) I've waited centuries to say that!
  Max: Say what you want, just don't breathe on me.
• In Marmaduke (and in the novel), the titular dog exhales in Mazie's face, causing her to back away and tell him that he has garbage breath.
• Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children: Mr Barron says this to Emma, after she has been holding him back against the wall with her exceptionally long and powerful breath.
• Pacific Rim: One blooper had Newt commenting on Hermann's bad breath.
• Pirates of the Caribbean:
  • Subverted with the Kraken in the second film. A few people mentioned that the monster had horrible breath, but after it roars in Captain Jack Sparrow's face, he simply shudders and mutters, "Not so bad."
  • Then again, Jack himself has really bad breath. In the same movie, Elizabeth reacts to it. In the third movie, Jack manages to weaponize it, exhaling directly into Will's face with breath so bad that it makes Will pass out. He even uses it to his advantage in Kingdom Hearts III by breathing in Luxord's face to get him out of the way.
• Steven from Primeval offers Jojo Tic-Tacs as a friendly gesture. He later tells Tim that he did it only because his breath was bad.
• After one of the demons in Scooby-Doo roars in Velma's face, she responds by saying it has a great mask, but bad breath.
• In Theodore Rex, Katie remarks about Theodore's bad breath several times. At one point she even squirted breath spray in his mouth.
• The Great Vincento from Up the Front has nasty breath:
  The Great Vincento: I will take your breath away.
  Lurk: I wish you'd take yours away.
• Les Visiteurs: The two protagonists are medieval men who Time Travel to further eras in time that have better standards of hygiene than The Dung Ages they come from, especially about the mouth.
  • The stinkiness of Jacquouille's mouth is the stuff of nightmares for most 20th and 18th century people who come across it. He does get toothpaste to "not rot" in the climax of the first film, but doesn't follow through on its use in the sequel.
  • When 1990s character Jacquart is stranded in 1123 in the sequel, he's exposed to the mouth smell of Boniface, one of the peasants in Montmirail, which makes him think of an "ebbing sewer".
• The wyvern from the Syfy Channel Original Movie Wyvern. One of the characters makes a comment about a horrible smell in the air after it roars for a rather long time inside the bar she and other characters are hiding in.

Literature

• Captain Underpants: In The Wrath of the Wicked Wedgie Woman, George and Harold rearrange the letters on a sign so that instead of "Have a Blissfully Grand Retirement, Ms. Ribble" it says "Ms. Ribble Really Needs A Breath Mint".
• Codex Alera: Tavi to Ambassador Varg. Made more badass by their relative size difference, the fact that Tavi had assumed a command that he didn't have, Tavi's total lack of magical protection, and so he put a knife to Varg's throat and then insulted him. Retrospectively, Varg knew from that encounter that Tavi was a Gaius.
• Disgusting McGrossface has the boy say, "Ever heard of toothpaste?!" when commenting on Disgusting's bad breath.
• The Green Ember: Captain Frye. In The Last Archer, he gets too close to Wilfred Longtreader and insults him. Wilfred calmly and snidely tells him that he has foul breath afterwards.
• Legatum: A lot of characters in the franchise don't seem to care much about oral hygiene, which many people comment upon.
  • Some of the main characters in Smirvlak's Stone (most notably the Corveel brothers) aren't fond of hygiene—oral or otherwise. It doesn't take much for any of the side characters to openly tell them that their breath smells awful.
  • Marrox from The Green Wanderer wastes no time mocking a drako after he gets too close to his face.
    Gilennes: Mmm... that orc stench. So sweaty and manly... I love it.
    Marrox: Mmf... that drako breath. Smells of brimstone and hot carrion. I adore it so much it's making me physically ill.
  • Help Not Wanted: Someone at some point makes a comment to each of the four goblins about their foul breath. Chapter 1 in particular has Grovmar telling his older brother that his morning breath smelled worse than the pile of trash they were sleeping in.
  • The Road to Hell...: Multiple characters have commented that King Chorn Torgash has awful breath. Krun goes as far as telling the orc that he'd be fine having his nose cut off just so he doesn't have to smell his breath anymore.
  • Scrambled Egg has Sonya snarkily telling Trellorv that his breath stinks of rot.
• Pinot Noir has Pinot and Big D both telling Greta that she needs a breath mint. The latter outright tried to give her one in chapter 6.
• The Pirates Covered in Fur: Carson the crocodile. His friends and his girlfriend repeatedly poke fun at his bad breath, and it gets to a point where he manages to weaponize it against a wolf.
• Mariel of Redwall: Foremole jokingly tells Burgo that his garlic breath is so strong that he could slay enemies with it.
  • Lask Frildur (and his Monitor lizards) from Pearls of Lutra. Nonverbal though since anyone who actually smelled Lask's breath simply scowled and turned their head away.
  • Eefera from Taggerung after he eats wild ramsons. Vallug Bowbeast jokes that his breath is so bad that he could climb into Redwall and knock out the guards just by breathing on them.
  • Diggs from The Sable Quean, after he eats wild ramsons. Ambrevina was so grossed out by his breath that she told him to wash out his mouth or else she'd leave him behind and travel alone.
• Roys Bedoys: In "What's That Smell, Roys Bedoys?", everyone gags and runs away when Roys has bad breath.
• Tails Series:
  • Rast, Seamus, and Douglas from Tails of Fame all have foul breath, which multiple characters openly say to their faces. Rast in particular, cannot even kiss someone because his breath stinks of cheese and garlic.
  • Tails of the Bounty Hunter has Cale tomlik, whom multiple people have said has got bad breath due to his rotting gums.
  • Tails of the Space Gladiators has David telling Unklok that he needs him to either give him some space or to eat breath mints after David gets blasted by Unklok's rancid breath.
• T.O.T.: Maximus Slade has horrible breath, and several characters in the story either joke or openly tell him how much his breath stinks.
  Maximus: How long did it take you to buy all this black clothing and ski masks?
  Toby: UGH! A lot longer than it took for you to brush your teeth this morning!

Live-Action TV

• Austin & Ally: When Austin has to kiss a girl for his music video, he stumbles upon Kira and chooses to work with her. Unfortunately, she turns out to have foul breath, but Austin and his friends refuse to tell her the truth directly. The cause for her bad breath turns out to be anchovies and garlic pizza, which she used to eat everyday. After she stops eating the stuff, Austin and Kira enter a brief relationship.
• The Benny Hill Show: In one sketch, Benny plays a gunslinger named The Halitosis Kid, who is infamous for his horrible breath. It's so bad that wherever he goes, trees wilt, flowers and birds die, cacti deflate, wallpaper peels, and people flee in terror. He barely even needs to use his gun, as his volatile breath is enough of a weapon.
• The Big Bang Theory: In "The Cohabitation Experimentation", Amy, who is initially enthusiastic about sharing the bed for the first time with Sheldon, is in for a rude awakening when Sheldon keeps her up at night with breathing in her face with his bad breath. Her reaction is a non-verbal version, namely closing his mouth shut manually.
• Breaking Bad: Hank and his partner bicker over the name of an upcoming drug bust. Hank wants to call it "Operation Icebreaker", which his partner points out is the name of a brand of breath mints. Hank says "I'm thinking 'Operation Breath Mint' every time you and me are on a stake out together, all right? Breath could knock a buzzard off a shit wagon."
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
  • In "Prophecy Girl".
    Master: Did you really think you could best me here when you couldn't below?
    Buffy: You have fruit-punch mouth.
  • In "As You Were" Buffy is on the way home from her shift at a Greasy Spoon when a vampire tries to eat her, only to back off because she smells terrible. Buffy naturally takes offense. "You're dead! You smell like it! How do you get to say I'm the one who's stinky?"
• During a protest on Community:
  Abed: Conflicts like this will ultimately bring us together as an unlikely family.
  Troy: You have horrible breath right now.
• Flashpoint: During a practice takedown, the "suspect" jokes that Sam's breath needs to be classified as less-lethal (they're old army buddies).
• Forever Knight:
  • In "For I Have Sinned", Nick Knight enters vampire/goth hangout The Raven. A vampire on the dance floor shows the Vampire Detective his fangs.
    Nick: Immortality's no excuse not to floss.
  • In the pilot episode Don Schanke has been chewing garlic and trolls Nick by breathing on him. Nick staggers in response, but not for the reason Schanke thinks.
  • In "Killer Instinct", Schanke is telling his precinct captain that he "lives and breathes" the murder case. She reels back a tad and tells him to keep his bodily functions out of this.
• Full House: Kimmy in the episode "Under the Influence" stays over at the Tanner residence after getting drunk at a fraternity party, and Michelle gets the full brunt of her alcohol-induced bad breath at one point, with her reaction being this trope from a Little Miss Snarker.
  Michelle: Whoa. Next time Dragon Breath sleeps in here, I want to be notified.
• House: In the episode "House Divided", Cuddy is trying to sober up House's team.
  Cuddy: Wait! Everyone's getting breath mints!
• Dee gives Mac a particularly colorful variant in one episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, describing his breath as smelling "like an old-lady fart passing through an onion."
• Married... with Children: The episode "Tooth or Consequences" makes it clear Al's teeth have seen better days.
  • Steve's remark about Al's dental hygiene, after Al boasts of having never had any cavities despite having never visited a dentist, overlaps this trope with Sarcasm Mode.
    Al: I haven't had a cavity my whole life and I've never been to the dentist.
    Steve: And still you have that delightful breath.
  • Marcy's initial reaction upon close inspection to Al's teeth is this trope, but with outright disgust instead of sarcasm.
    Marcy: Oh my God, it smells like a hamper.
• The Muppets (2015): Kristin Chenoweth is crammed in a bus with the Electric Mayhem, and Animal is literally breathing down her neck. She finally pulls out a container of Tic-Tacs and pours them down his throat, which he happily takes.
• NCIS: In one episode, a suspect's repeat offender breath makes Ziva request mints.
• Sabrina the Teenage Witch: Salem is looking up a bunch of his old girlfriends, but each one turns out to have some flaw or bad habit that made him break up with them. At one point, he can't remember why he dumped "Hallie", but on meeting her realizes it was short for Halitosis.
• Shake it Up: Flynn says this to Deuce when the latter growls in his face while in their zombie costumes.
  Deuce: You know? You could really use some lotion!
  Flynn: And you could really use a mint.
• Ted Lasso: Roy's niece Phoebe gets toothpaste and mouthwash from her Secret Santa, along with a note saying she needs them to fix her bad breath. This greatly upsets Phoebe, though it turns out her bad breath is actually a medical issue, since it's caused by the medicine she's been taking for her cat allergy.
• The Tonight Show: Johnny Carson would run down a legitimate list of things from a given subject, followed by Ed McMahon stating that he's covered just about every thing we wanted to know about it. Johnny would then retort "You are wrong, (derogatory adjective) breath!"

Music

• The Aquabats!: "It's Crazy, Man!" is about a guy who goes to a rock show with a girl, only to bail on his date when he learns just how bad her halitosis is.
  Can I be honest with you?
  I'll be real brief
  You're such a beautiful girl
  But go brush your teeth!
• This lyric in Bowling For Soup's "Sometimes":
  We made out at the show
  I think I should let you know
  That you could sure use a breath mint...
  Sometimes.
• Done by country music parodist Cledus T. Judd in "Breath", a takeoff of Faith Hill's "Breathe":
  'Cause I can smell your breath
  It's gagging me to death
  Something must have died inside of you
  What you ought to do
  Is chase a Cert or two
  With Listerine...
• Del tha Funkee Homosapien's "If You Must" is about the importance of personal hygiene, which Del contrasts with some guys he's met:
  I'm 'bout to get into some shit that I've seen
  This fool's breath hummin' so bad it'll melt your ice cream
  They say don't say nothing if you can't say nice things
  Sittin' too close to him on BART, like my eyes sting
  I try to be subtle, hand him a stick of gum
  I was a victim of breath on hum
• The Madvillain song "Operation Lifesaver AKA Mint Test" is about Doom going out with a cute girl with really bad breath.
• Played for Laughs in "Chanson dégueulasse" (literally "gross song") by French singer Renaud. It is about the love story between Hugues (who suffers from an extremely bad breath) and Julie (who has really stinking feet).
• In the music video for Will Smith's "Men in Black", a rather ugly alien roars right in K's face. No words are said, but the hand waving gesture K/Will Smith makes illustrates the intent of the phrase.
• Victorious: The song "Take A Hint" has the lyric:
  I am not your missing link
  Let me tell you what I think
  I think you could use a mint...
  Take a hint, take a hint!

Pro Wrestling

• Jim Cornette once compared Jillian Hall's breath to "kiwi boot polish".
• Shawn Michaels made this joke about Gene Snitsky, though it was more so "you need to brush your teeth".

Tabletop Games

• In the speech game, No Glamour, one of the situation cards features a girl named Annette, who is very sweet and pretty. The only problem is that she has bad breath, and the players' job is to figure out ways to deal with that without hurting her feelings.
• Pathfinder: Due to a diet composed chiefly of carrion and garbage, goblin snakes have such godawful halitosis that their breath is by itself enough to cause physical nausea in other creatures.

Theater

• Cinderella (Lloyd Webber): During "So Long" Cinderella insults Sebastian's breath.
  Cinderella: Ugh, you know, you use your breath as a defense mechanism to stop people from getting too close to you.

Video Games

• In BROK the InvestiGator, you can provoke R.J. into a fight in Chapter 3 by repeatedly insulting him. One of Brok's insults is snidely telling R.J. that he'll buy him a toothbrush because his breath is terrible, implying he's so poor he can't even afford one.
• Brütal Legend has Eddie's reaction to meeting the Lamprey:
  Lamprey: [screams at Eddie]
  Eddie: Ugh! Smells like a whale... ate some cabbage... then died in your mouth... like a year ago!
• Dark Souls: Primordial Serpent Kingseeker Frampt apparently has terrible breath according to the Crestfallen Warrior. And he transports you in his mouth... Justified in his case, since you have the option of offering him Dung Piles in exchange for an amazing 200 souls. One can only imagine how many travelers have given him piles of shit to eat for such a great bargain...
• Destroy All Humans!: Pox mentions that the Blisk aliens have "withering halitosis." The first game also has Armquist. If Crypto reads a soldier's thoughts during the Capitol City level, sometimes this will pop up:
  Soldier: Man, Armquist's breath really stinks! But he's so dreamy...
• Injustice: Gods Among Us: Hawkgirl uses this to taunt Lex Luthor when he starts a Clash:
  Lex Luthor: I could use that belt!^note Which is what actually allows her to fly; the wings are part of it
  Hawkgirl: Or a breath mint.
• Jak and Daxter has a couple of the characters, most of which involve Daxter telling said person about their breath.
• Knights of the Old Republic:
  • Mission comments her best-buddy Zaalbar has dog breath.
    Mission: The Vulkar was so scared, he fainted. Either that or Big Z's breath just knocked him out. I keep telling Zaalbar to brush those choppers of his, but he never listens. Just stay upwind when he's talking and you'll be fine.
  • Also applies to the PC -if you believe Jolee Bindo, anyway:
    Jolee: You remind me of someone I used to know. Great destiny, all of that. Breath like a Bantha.
    PC: Is that a comment on my breath?
    Jolee: No, but it could be. An Anduvian salt tablet would clear that right up, you know.
• Leisure Suit Larry 1: In the Land of the Lounge Lizards: Throughout the game, Larry frequently gets reminded that his breath smells horrible and has to use his breath spray to fix it. Failing to do so will render him unable to interact with any characters as they are put off by his bad breath.
• Mother 3: When Kumatora first meets Duster, she suddenly approaches his face. After a few moments, she backs away and comments "his breath kinda stinks".
• Ōkami: Nonverbal it may be, but Amaterasu is clearly thinking this when she gets a faceful of Mr. Orange's sake breath.
• Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door: Petuni makes a remark saying that Bowser is a scary "Giant Bad Breath Monster." There's also the putrid piranhas, who appear throughout the series. Their breath is so foul that it's used as an attack that can poison Mario. Goombella responds with "Breath Mint, table four!"
• Plants vs. Zombies 2: It's About Time: While zombies affected by the Stunion's bad breath don't say anything, it's safe to say that their stunned reaction speaks for this trope.
• Ratchet: Deadlocked: Gleeman Vox laughs airily in Ratchet's face, prompting him to wave a hand in front of his nose.
• In The Secret of Monkey Island, Guybrush can't even talk to the prisoner in the town jail until he finds some breath mints, the poor guy's halitosis is so bad (it apparently stems from not being fed regularly and being forced to feed on rats).
  • In Tales of Monkey Island, when LeChuck asks Guybrush for hints on solving a puzzle, the latter has the option of saying to eat breath mints. LeChuck appears not to realize the point.
• Sly Cooper:
  • In Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves, Bentley insults Muggshot by saying he gargled with raw sewage overnight. Muggshot doesn't even try to deny it, stating that the smell of his breath helps him maintain his "personal space."
  • Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time has Carmelita getting into a shooting competition with Red-Eye the coyote. Before the competition starts, he tells her that if she loses, she has to kiss him, and Carmelita says his breath smells like fermented gym socks.
• The Game Boy Advance Teen Titans game has its first level end with Gizmo escaping the moment the Titans see him. Beast Boy brags on how the mere sight of him was enough to make Gizmo retreat, to which Starfire responds by saying that it may just be that Beast Boy's breath lacks freshness.
• Yakuza: Like a Dragon: Yu Nanba, being a homeless bum, suffers from horrible breath. In gameplay, he can weaponize this to inflict status ailments against enemies. His Kiwami ability even allows him to revive fallen teammates by attempting CPR and awakening them before even getting to breathe into their lungs due to his halitosis being so awful that it practically functions as smelling salts.

Web Animation

• Minilife TV: In "Home Alone", while the burglar tries to pry the phone from Chris's hand after he threatens to call the police, there's this exchange:
  Chris: Your breath smells horrible!
  Burglar: My cellmate used all of my toothpaste!
  Chris: Then borrow some from the other prisoners!
  Burglar: Do you have any idea how awkward that is?!

Webcomics

• The Basic Instructions page How to deal with somebody who has bad breath suggests offering a mint for hinting someone about the problem.
• Erika and the Princes in Distress: To prevent a Princess to kiss him and thus awaken him from his eternal slumber, Morphine cursed Prince Aurel with a terrible breath, which causes most people to faint on the spot if they get too close.
• Grrl Power: Sydney Scoville likes food that starts at Blazing Inferno Hellfire Sauce and goes up on the Scoville scale from there. As a result, her breath hits people like tear gas. The breath mint thing ends up being doctor's orders.
• Loserz: In one strip, Ben remarks that Jodie's breath smells like penis and offers her a mint.
• The Order of the Stick:
  • In "It's a Real Life-Saver":
    Haley: Hey, Bozzok!! I've got two things you've needed desperately for some time: An arrow to the gut, and a breath freshener!
  • This is Minrah's reaction upon meeting Elan for the first time, because he ate lots of garlic in preparation for fighting vampires.
    Minrah: Hmmm. Your words are sweet, but your breath is pungent. I doubt someone who stinks of so much garlic could be working with vampires. I believe you, smelly human.
    Elan: Hooray!
    Minrah: Please stop breathing on me.

Web Videos

• One of Thomas Sanders' Family Guy Vines has him showering "Herbert"^note played by friend/Viner Taylor Shrum, who plays Herbert in a lot of Thomas' "Stewie" Vines with LifeSavers mints after getting a blast of his breath.

Western Animation

• Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog: Not surprisingly, Dr. Robotnik is confirmed to have pretty bad breath in some episodes, such as "Hedgehog of the Hound Table".
  Robotnik: WHIP UP A MAGICAL SPELL AND TURN MERLYNX BACK TO NORMAL!
  Grounder: Yes, Your Bad Breathness!
• The Amazing World of Gumball:
  • Tina. Penny, jealous that Gumball didn't choose her for a date to Rachel's party, tells Gumball that she didn't realize he likes "lizard breath." Cue Tina sniffing her breath and then looking embarrassed.
  • Earlier, in the episode "The Ghost", Gumball drinks a disgusting blend of slop so he'll have nasty breath and gross out Carrie. He grosses out everyone but her, because it smelled like death.
  • Mentioned offhand in the episode "The Pest": apparently, Gumball replaced Anais' powdered pills with turtle food, resulting in her having the school nickname "Kraken Breath".
• Almost Naked Animals: Howie, after he and Octo are roped together in "Cowboy Cabana".
  Howie: One of us could really use a breath mint.
  [Howie sniffs twice]
  Howie: Yeeeeah, that's me.
• American Dragon: Jake Long's breath starts powering up. The result of this is horrid breath that at one point causes one of his classmates to stuff an entire container's worth of breath mints into his mouth while commenting on it.
• Arthur: In a conversation between Binky and George about creating a new language:
  Binky: Guess what this means. [belches in George's face]
  George: Ugh! "I want a breath mint"?
• Avatar: The Last Airbender does this during the "Ember Island Players" episode:
  Actor Sokka: You're the only girl who's ever managed to take my mind off food. Did you have pickled fish for dinner?
  Actor Yue: I must go, Sokka. I have important moon duties to attend to. And yes. I did have pickled fish for dinner.
• Beast Wars:
  • The episode "The Low Road" has this exchange between Dinobot and Rattrap:
    Dinobot: Wait! I detect a scent! Vile corruption... a whiff of festering putrification!
    Rattrap: So I ate a limburger sandwich for lunch! I'm a rat, gimme a break!
    Dinobot: I've been... uncomfortably aware of your stench for the past hour, vermin.
  • And then later, from the same episode:
    Dinobot: Unlike you, I do not spend my time scurrying through sewers!
    Rattrap: Yeah? Well, a sewer smells better than your breath, bronto-brain!
• Ben 10: Wildmutt, after he lands in front of Gwen in the pilot episode.
  Gwen: Ew! Two words: breath mints!
• Brandy & Mr. Whiskers: Mr. Whiskers. Not only have characters commented about his breath, but he managed to kill a flower with it. Whiskers lampshades this with Ed in the same episode after realizing many animals are avoiding them. When Ed exhales in Whisker's face, his fur falls out.
• Bunsen Is a Beast: The episode "Boodle Loo" has Amanda comment on the bad breath of Bunsen's invisible dog Boodle by asking if he ever heard of a dog breath mint.
• Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: In the episode "Strange Invasion", a Roswellian scientist exhales at XR and wipes off some of the dirt covering the robot Space Ranger's helmet. XR then remarks that the scientist should stop having scallions for lunch.
• Camp Lazlo: Nina offers Chip and Skip after-dinner mints after smelling their breath on her date with them.
• Clue Club: One episode had D.D. and Pepper eating cloves of garlic to ward off a vampire chasing them. D.D. says "H-h-h-h-hello, there!" and Pepper says "h-h-h-h-h-hi, h-h-h-h-h-handsome!" to the vampire, causing him to wilt and run away. As a gag, Pepper does this to the dogs Woofer and Wimper, who melt to the ground from repulsion.
• Danny Phantom:
  • In the episode "Parental Bonding", Sam (after she transformed into the Ghost Dragon) breaths her fiery breath at Danny. Although he dodges the attack, he still catches wind of her breath.
    Danny: Whoa, Sam! Two words: breath mints.
  • Used again in "Public Enemies", when he's captured by Walker.
    Walker: [holding him by the neck] By the time I'm done with you, you'll be begging for the safety of your jail cell!
    Danny: The only thing I'm begging for is for you to seriously consider using some mouthwash!
• Dinosaur Train: In the episode "T. Rex Teeth", Tiny whispers to Buddy that Dolores' breath smells awful. Buddy thinks it's because she ate carrion, and after he eats some and exhales in Tiny's face, she confesses that his breath smells too.
• Doug: In Doug's fantasy, Roger, portrayed as Klotzilla, carries Patti hostage and roars in Patti's face. The latter responds by throwing a whole pack of breath mints down Klotzilla's throat.
• Ed, Edd n Eddy: Jonny, after he's force-fed anchovies, belches loudly in Ed's face. Ed then waves a hand in front of his nose before saying, "Low tide!"
• Extreme Dinosaurs: "The Incredible Shrinking Dinosaurs" has Bullzeye saying this to Haxx after he's released from his mouth:
  Bullzeye: UGH! What do you use for mouthwash: rotten eggs?
• The Fairly OddParents!:
  • In "Something's Fishy", after Timmy tries snorkeling in the ocean, he ends up coughing up a bunch of garbage... along with Cosmo and Wanda in their goldfish form.
    Timmy: Oh, man! That's totally gross!
    Cosmo: You think that's gross? Have you smelled the inside of your mouth? Two words: Mouthwash.
    Wanda: Uh, that's one word.
    Cosmo: Then I'll say it twice: Mouthwash! Mouthwash!
  • In "The Fairy Flu", Cosmo and Wanda contract the titular disease, which causes things to randomly transform when they sneeze, including Vicky into a fire-breathing dragon. Just as she's about to blow fire in Timmy's face, they get cured and transform her back just in time, so all that Vicky does once she's human again is roar in Timmy's face.
    Timmy: (sniffs Vicky's breath after she roars) Halitosis.
  • The episode "Teacher's Pet" has Mr. Crocker finally managing to capture fairies by splicing his genes with various animals, one of which being a chipmunk so he can store the captured fairies in his cheeks. One of the captured fairies is Juandissimo who complains that Mr. Crocker's breath stinks. When they're free to take their retribution on him before erasing his memory, Juandissimo angrily brushes Crocker's teeth and force-feeds him mouthwash.
• FETCH! with Ruff Ruffman: In "Good Dancing and bad Breath", Charlene's Establishing Character Moment was when she tells Ruff he has halitosis, in which Ruff thinks it means "charm and good looks", but he's shocked to learn that the word acutally means "bad breath".
  Ruff: (Gasps) BAD BREATH!? She said I had bad breath?.. But that's impossible! Everyone knows dogs have the cleanest mouth of the whole animal kingdom.
• Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends: Mr. Herriman gets a whiff of Bloo's morning breath, which smells so foul he demands Bloo brush his teeth as soon as possible.
• Gravedale High: One of the teachers at the titular All-Ghouls School was a mummy with bad breath named Mr. Tutner. A minor running gag had the other characters make remarks about his halitosis.
• Jacala from the 2010 version of The Jungle Book. In "The Tooth Of The Matter", Mowgli asks Jacala to open his mouth so he can remove a sore tooth. Cue Mowgli groaning and plugging his nose after getting blasted in the face with the crocodile's breath.
• Justice League: The Flash when he and the Justice League face the fire-breathing Hades:
  Flash: Whoo, someone get this guy a breath mint!
• Kaeloo: In the episode "Let's Play Doctors and Nurses", Bad Kaeloo lifts Mr. Cat by the neck and roars in his face. He then remarks about her breath:
  Mr. Cat: [looking in her mouth] Is there a skunk in there?
• King of the Hill: Bill Dauterive, in addition to being overweight, has terrible body odor, and balding.
• Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness: In the episode "Mama Told Me Not to Kung Fu", Po and Heilang get into a fight at close range and the former starts to slowly shove the latter backwards. Then this happens:
  Heilang: You must be the Dragon Warrior.
  Po: And you must be... not a fan of brushing your teeth. Ugh, seriously, what's the point in being invisible if I can find you by smell?
• Lilo & Stitch: The Series: In the episode "Nosy," Nosy exposes several of Lilo's secrets after reading her diary, two of which are that Stitch snores like a pig and has really bad breath. Stitch actually exhales in his hand just to prove him wrong and thinks it smells minty fresh... only for a vase full of flowers to wilt mere seconds later.
• Looney Tunes:
  • In the short "Pigs in a Polka", The Big Bad Wolf blows on the third pig's door three times in an effort to blow his brick house down. One of the pigs offers the wolf a bottle of mouthwash, which he promptly slaps away.
  • The same thing happens in "A Gander at Mother Goose", except that the wolf responds with a combined reference to The Fred Allen Show and a tag line from an old Listerine commercial:
    Big Bad Wolf: Why don't some of my best friends tell me these things?
  • In "Wild and Woolly Hare", Yosemite Sam gets too close to Bugs Bunny as he talks.
    Bugs: You've been eatin' onions.
    Sam: And you're gonna be eatin' lead!
• The Loud House: Lynn warns Lincoln that his teacher Mr. Bolhofner's breath reeks of sardines with a hint of red onions and farts. She's not kidding, as Mr. Bolhofner tends to force his breath on Lincoln to torture him.
• The Mask comments the trope name and pulling out a pack of mints at a monster that just roared at his face.
• My Gym Partner's a Monkey: A Halloween Episode has Jake commenting on an old custodian's bad breath.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
  • In "Bridle Gossip", when the entire town seems to be deserted, Spike asks if his breath smells, with the obvious implication. Twilight's reply is a casual "No worse than usual."
  • In "A Dog and Pony Show", Rarity questions a foul odor in the air after the Diamond Dogs' leader, Rover, yells at her. She quickly figures out the answer.
  • And this moment from "May The Best Pet Win!":
    Applejack: Does [Rainbow Dash] really understand what a pet really needs?
    Twilight: Yeah, like care and attention, love and affection...
    [Winona licks her face]
    Twilight: UGH! And breath mints!
  • One distinctive feature of the Timber Wolves — wolves made out of logs and branches — is their rancid breath.
  • In "The End in Friend", Rarity and Rainbow Dash encounter a large, frog-like creature called a bufogren while looking for the Amulet of Aurora, and try to learn where the amulet went from it. The issue is that the beast has terrible halitosis, bad enough that Rarity and Rainbow are visibly nauseated from being in its proximity. Rarity has to create an improvised batch of toothpaste out of a specific plant and a small cloud to clean its breath before they can continue talking to it.
• Rocket Power:
  • In the episode "Outta My Pit!", Lars orders the gang to leave their new hangout so he and his friends can takeover it. As he's challenging them, Otto tells Lars, "First, I suggest you brush your teeth". This is followed by Lars checking his breath and his friends recoling from the smell.
  • "The Good Housekeeping Seal", when Twister gave a seal he and his gang name Bruce his breakfast burrito before taking off, Bruce burps it hard disgusting him.
• The Simpsons: In the episode "Barting Over", Bart gets legally emancipated from his parents after learning that when he was a baby, Homer put him in an embarrassing series of mouthwash ads where he played "Baby Stink-Breath", and subsequently squandered what should have been Bart's royalties.
• The Spectacular Spider-Man:
  • When Ox grabs Spidey in a Bear Hug, Spidey says "Look pal, if you needed a breath mint, you just had to ask!"
  • When Lizard roars at him Spidey says "Yikes! Can you say 'halitosis'?"
• SpongeBob SquarePants:
  • In "Suds", when Patrick doesn't want SpongeBob to see a real doctor to handle his titular illness, he tries ineffective treatments that causes the latter to bloat up like a balloon and give him a nasty case of halitosis that comes in the form of a green poisonous gas which kills plants, clams, and everything else in its path the moment he exhales. Sandy points out SpongeBob's illness is much worse than she thought.
  • The episode "Something Smells" centers around SpongeBob having rancid breath. However, everyone around him runs away (or dies in some cases) as opposed to telling him he needs a breath mint, making him think people are reacting negatively to him because he's ugly. SpongeBob does tell Patrick this after Patrick eats some of SpongeBob's leftover "peanut onion sundae", and SpongeBob realises with relief that "We're not ugly, we just stink!".
  • Also this exchange from "Hooky":
    Mr. Krabs: [yelling in random guy's face] THE HOOKS! THE HOOKS!
    Random Guy: [grimaces; takes out mint] How 'bout a mint?
  • Triton gets disgusted over SpongeBob's breath as the latter talks to the former.
  • "Ghost Host" has the Flying Dutchman attempt to scare an old woman, but it doesn't work since she has headphones in and is hard of sight, mistaking him for someone named Lonnie. His second roar only manages to make her waft away the smell of his breath:
    Old Woman: There's this great new product called toothpaste. I think you should try it.
  • "The Battle of Bikini Bottom" has SpongeBob and Patrick engage in a war of cleanliness. When Patrick's morning breath causes SpongeBob to literally shatter into tiny pieces, SpongeBob responds that Patrick needs dental hygiene and strikes back by brushing his rotting and decaying teeth.
• Static Shock: The episode "Static Shaq" has Shaq saying this to Ferret when he tried to bite him:
  Shaq: I've got one word for you: mouthwash!
• Teen Titans (2003): During an attack on an underwater villain base, Beast Boy at one point transports the team by turning into a whale and having them hop in his mouth. After he spits them back out, Raven does the "Two words: breath mints" bit.
• Tiny Toon Adventures: In the episode "Rock 'N' Roar", Rover, a T.rex licks Babs, causing her to say:
  Babs Bunny: (thoroughly disgusted): UGH! YECCH!!! BLEAH! (spoken) Give that boy a breath mint!
• Total Drama:
  • In "Full Metal Drama", Duncan gets in Leshawna's face about how she's a liar and that he doesn't mess with liars. Leshawna retorts that he should get to messing with winter mint.
  • In "Walk Like An Egyptian, Part 1", Ezekiel brags that he'll never have to travel economy class on the Total Drama Jumbo Jet. Noah, who stands right next to him, asks if "never" is his policy on mouthwash too.
  • When they finish the wedding challenge in "Niagara Brawls", Courtney and Duncan can't help but insult each other when Chef asks if they have anything to declare. Among others, Duncan declares that Courtney could use some mouthwash.
  • While racing along the Great Wall of China in "Chinese Fake-Out", Heather tells Blaineley to take a mint when she finds the other running too close to her.
  • In "Jurassic Fart", when Julia has an encounter with a Raptor that roars in her face, the first thing she insults is the Raptor's breath, which "reeks of cavemen girls".
• T.U.F.F. Puppy:
  Kitty: My claws are registered as deadly weapons!
  Dudley: Maybe you should register your breath!
• Turbo Dogs:
  • The episode "Turbo Toothache" has GT eating part of an onion in an attempt to soothe his sore tooth. After that doesn't work, Strut comes along and asks him to open his mouth so he can see what's wrong. You can see where this is going.
  • Earlier in "Stink Positive", Stinkbert blows up a balloon and gives it to Dash, advising him not to let it pop. Dash quickly plugs his nose and groans, saying he "wouldn't dream of it."
• Tutenstein: Set, after disgusting Tut by yawning in his face.
• Whatever Happened to... Robot Jones?: In the episode "Cube Wars", after Lenny Yogman gets too close to his brother Denny, Denny tells him to eat a breath mint.
• Wild West C.O.W.-Boys of Moo Mesa had this memorable exchange in the episode "Thoroughly Moodern Lily".
  Sheriff Terrorbull: Watch your mouth!
  Cowlarado Kid: Phew! Brush your teeth!

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