Sensual Sweets - TV Tropes
- ️Wed Nov 13 2024
Lollipops: Now in Cherry, Strawberry, and Freudian flavors.
"Call my baby Lollipop, tell you why
His kiss is sweeter than an apple pie"
In the The '50s and The '60s, psychologist Karl H. Pribram laid out the "Four Fs" of evolutionary psychology, the most basic primal drives of all vertebrates: fighting, fleeing, feeding, and... mating. The last two are especially intertwined in humans; food and sex are inextricably linked, as most human brains are hardwired to give hits of dopamine whenever we eat certain foods or procreate.
This preamble is a long way of saying that sweet-tasting foods, ranging from candy to cakes to fruit, have long been associated with romance and sex. On the romantic side, gifts of cake and chocolate are common among couples, and coffee shops that sell pastries are common locations for first dates in the western world. "Honey", "Sugar", and "Sweetiepie" are all affectionate nicknames often used by couples. Even TV Tropes itself has used terms such as "Christmas Cake" to refer to certain demographics in terms of romance.
On the steamier side of things, there is a widespread misconception that chocolate is an aphrodisiac, which might be brought up in this context. Lollipops and pies are also a very common food to use for this trope, due to certain Freudian connotations. Perhaps not coincidentally, Love Potions, if given without consent, are often portrayed as being slipped into spiked confectioneries. It should be noted that more explicit innuendo is typically only found in songs, and only ever discussed or alluded to in more visual media, as a lyrical description of something isn't as likely to draw the ire of a broadcasting standards body, vs. someone naked covering themselves in chocolate sauce.
Subtrope of Visual Innuendo. Nothing to do with Food Porn, in most cases. Naturally, the way to a man's heart is Through His Stomach. May involve Erotic Eating if the sweet is consumed suggestively. See also Orgasmically Delicious for food that's just that good. Can potentially be connected to the imagery of Pink Is Love and Pink Is Erotic, especially in cases where the food is something like strawberry shortcake. Supertrope to Chocolate of Romance, Girls Love Chocolate, Heartbreak and Ice Cream, and Jumping Out of a Cake (though only if the person inside the cake is an exotic dancer).
Examples:
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Advertising
- Behold the sensual way of puckering her lips as she consumes a chocolate truffle in this Lindor ad
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- Long Long Man, a series of Japanese ads for Sakeru Gummy (and its new Long format), gives their product a lot of visual innuendos and sensual eating of candy. The ad shows a woman lusting for a man's longer... candy, and the ads are littered with pink.
- Orangina's most iconic ad campaign involved a bunch of scantily-clad anthropomorphic animals dousing themselves in the soda, allegedly to play up the natural ingredients, but the association of 'sweet drink' and 'hot animal women' is still present.
Anime & Manga
- Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt: Stocking almost never eats anything except various sweets. Not only does she get foodgasms from them, but it's implied that it helps with her sex drive.
- School Rumble: During Tenma's birthday, she's given leave to order her friends to do whatever she requests. She Trolls Mikoto and Akira by telling them to both chew on opposite ends of a Pocky stick, similar to ''Lady and the Tramp's spaghetti scene. The Pocky breaks before Mikoto and Akira's lips touch, to Tenma's disappointment.
- Urusei Yatsura: Played for Laughs when Rei, who is a handsome glutton, sees a bit of sweet bean paste from a taiyaki on Ran's face and moves to lick it off her, which she thinks is an amorous kiss. When she learns the truth, she willingly lets him do so again, as at least it's physical contact with the guy she likes.
Fan Works
- In The Loud House fanfic Marshmallow Pie
, the title comes from Leni referring to her crush, Chas, as looking like a marshmallow pie because he's chubby in a cute way.
Film — Animated
- Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs: The first proper romance scene we get between Flint and Sam involves them hanging out in a house made of Jell-O that Flint programmed the FLDSMDFR to make.
Film — Live-Action
- Addams Family Values: Parodied and played for Black Comedy. During Uncle Fester's stag party, it's expected for an exotic dancer to come Jumping Out of a Cake... except they apparently baked the cake while the dancer was still inside it. Gomez declares "C'est la vie!".
- American Pie: The titular pie does not refer to the song by Don McLean; instead, it refers to a scene where, after Oz tells Jim that vaginal sex feels like warm apple pie, the latter proceeds to attempt intercourse with just such a pastry.
- A Clockwork Orange: The two girls Alex meets at the records store suck on (quite phallic, like several other things in the film) lollipops when he comes at them and chats to invite them to listen to his classical records in his bedroom (which rapidly turns into a threesome). He even licks the brunette's lollipop.
- Played with in Descendants: The Rise of Red, where Princess Bridget used to freely hand out cupcakes to everyone she saw, hoping that they would return the affections she freely gave. One day, the evil sea witch Ulianna gave her a cupcake in return during Castlecoming, but the cupcake was cursed, and Bridget was made temporarily hideous during what was supposed to be the most romantic night of the school year. Heartbroken by Ulianna's cruelty, Bridget stopped giving her cupcakes so freely, and closed off her heart to everyone, becoming the cruel Red Queen of Wonderland.
- The Devil's Advocate: Discussed in a disparaging way by Milton, who dismisses love as "biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate."
- Lolita: The original poster for the 1962 Stanley Kubrick film gives great focus to the titular character holding a lollipop in her lips, illustrating that Humbert sees Dolores as sexually available despite being fourteen.
- Sweet Movie has this play into both the Miss Canada and Anna plotlines, with the former segment ending with Miss Canada masturbating in a vat of chocolate, and the latter involving having sex on a pile of sugar.
- Waitress: Dr. Pomatter falls in love with Jenna's pies not long before falling in love with and having an affair with her. Jenna also bakes a "Falling in Love Chocolate Mousse Pie" for her friend Dawn to give to her blind date, who ends up being such a Dogged Nice Guy that Dawn says the pie worked too well. It helps that Jenna's pies are inspired by what she's feeling — in the musical, this leads to Jenna bringing Dr. Pomatter pies like "In the Dark Dark Chocolate Pie" and "Pineapple Upside Down Pie".
Literature
- The works of Chuck Tingle often involve sapient, anthropomorphic objects having unlikely sexual encounters with humans; subjects have, on several occasions, included foodstuffs such as cookies, donuts, and chocolate milk.
- Early Riser: Charlie cares for Birgitta, a woman who's turned into a non-sapient Nightwalker due to a side effect of the drug Morphenox, by feeding her high-calorie foods such as Snickers bars and other sweets; however, it's downplayed, as while Charlie cares deeply for Birgitta, they recognize she's not mentally there, and it goes no further than trying to keep her alive.
- Goblin Market: The temptation of the goblin fruit is described with strong sexual imagery. Laura succumbs, only for the goblins to glut her with Orgasmically Delicious fruit and abandon her to die of wanting. When Lizzie goes to buy more for Laura, they cajole and then try to force-feed her, leaving her covered with juice that Laura kisses off her skin.
Never mind my bruises,
Hug me, kiss me, suck my juices
Squeezed from goblin fruits for you,
Goblin pulp and goblin dew.
- Harry Potter: The Amorentia love potion smells different to everyone who experiences it; Harry, in particular, smells treacle tart, his favorite dessert, alongside Ginny Weasley's perfume. Harry's Stalker with a Crush during the sixth volume, Romilda Vane, tries dosing him with it using spiked chocolates, but Ron eats them instead.
- InCryptid: In the first book, when Verity wants to spend quality time with Dominic, she needs to bribe the Aisling Mice that live in her apartment, and invokes a religious rite they have where she exchanges cake for privacy.
Live-Action TV
- Grimm: In an attempt to get Hank under mind control so she can manipulate Nick, Adalind uses a pseudo Love Potion called "Zaubertrank 23" that she then bakes into cookies.
- Last Man Standing: When Mandy, angered by her boyfriend, decides to break up with him she enlists the aid of her sisters to create a music video, featuring a song titled "Pie Rack", and having all three of the sisters dancing around provocatively while talking about Mandy's "pie rack". The video has the unintended consequence of ruining pie for Mike Baxter after seeing his three young daughters, two of them still teenagers, dancing suggestively to the song.
Music
- 50 Cent: In the music video for his song "Candy Shop", in a segment, 50Cent enters a room where a lady is sitting inside the bathtub, while another lady pours down melted chocolate on the first one. Some seconds later, the camera shows the second lady rubbing an apple on the chocolate-covered body of the first one and eating it.
- Archie Comics briefly had a band in the '60s, known as the Archies, which released the song "Sugar Sugar", which is loaded with sweetness metaphors talking about the singer's "Candy Girl".
- Bowling for Soup: Played with for "Lovesick Stomach Ache". The singer describes his short-lived romance with his ex as being nauseatingly sugary sweet, with mentions of things like "popsicle love and pie-crust promises", and calls the relationship a "sugar-coated accident" that's now giving him an upset stomach following the breakup. This plays with the connection between sweets and romance, as it's depicted as something empty "like a cavity" and unhealthy, with the singer trying to recover after the ensuing heartbreak.
- The Chordettes: Their hit song "Lollipop" uses the metaphor of sweet candy and pies to describe the affection the singer holds for their lover.
- Def Leppard's song "Pour Some Sugar on Me" is clearly conflating sugar with sex, by asking the interlocutor to open a bottle and pour some sugar on him, since he is "sticky sweet" from head to feet. Another particular example is in the punny verses "You got the peaches, I got the cream / Sweet to taste, saccharine".
- Lemon Demon: Subverted. The song "Sweet Bod" sounds at first like a seductive disco track and has lyrics that fit in with this imagery ("Your body is so sweet now, I'm saying trick-or-treat now") but it soon becomes clear that the singer intends to mummify the subject of the song in honey and sell the resulting mixture as a Panacea.
- The Strangeloves originated the song "I Want Candy", whose chorus sounds innocent enough that the cover by Aaron Carter in the late '90s was frequently used in ads for confectioneries around Halloween; however, the lyrics are referring to a woman named Candy, who looks 'so good wrapped in a sweater'.
- Warrant: The music "Cherry Pie" compares the singer's lover to a cherry pie, mentioning she is "a sweet surprise", how "she tastes so good". The lyrics are also dripping (pun intended) with sexual innuendo.
Theatre
- Heathers: The Musical: Happens with a couple of songs.
- The second major number is titled "Candy Store", and is about Heather Chandler directly tempting Veronica with promises of sex, partying, and power using the metaphor of a candy store for the fact that she'll be so popular, she can do anything.
- J.D. and Veronica flirt with each other over Slurpees in a 7-Eleven during "Freeze your Brain", where J.D. talks about how the drink has a numbing effect that allows him to cope with his unfortunate lot in life.
Video Games
- Bayonetta is fond of lollipops, to the point that various lollipops serve as recovery items in the franchise, and being a Ms. Fanservice that she is, she loves licking them in sensual manner.
- Fallen London: Prisoner's Honey is a Fantastic Drug that is often consumed among the Bohemians of Ladybone Road. It's implied that those who use it in the honey-dens often have sex while high on the substance, and a handful of storylets that involve NPC relationships are triggered by visiting the honey-dens in the early game.
- Going Under: When Jacqueline eats a Peach, she gets the ability to charm the first enemy that hits her.
- Hades: Nectar and Ambrosia, in this version of Classical Mythology, are portrayed as sweet, possibly alcoholic drinks; in the first game, Zagreus needs to give enough Nectar and Ambrosia to Thanatos and Megaera in order to fully form a relationship with them. Hades II reveals that these are made with golden apples such as those Eris drops, making them a form of cider; however, other gifts need to be given to most of the NPCs in the Crossroads to progress their relationships.
- Persona 5: An optional Christmas date that Joker can take with a female confidant at Rank 10 has him go with said confidant to buy a literal Christmas cake; they end up getting the last one at the bakery, before cuddling up under the bedsheets in Joker's room above LeBlanc. In the postgame, assuming Joker wasn't a two (or more!)-timing bastard, he'll get a chocolate from the female confidant he's dating.
- Pokémon:
- Three different lines of Fairy-type Pokémon — Swirlix, Milcery, and Fidough — all have the theme of sweet foods (Swirlix is cotton candy/fairy floss, Milcery is whipped cream, Fidough is bread and buns). Each line can learn moves themed around affection, such as Attract, Draining Kiss, and Charm.
- Pokémon Scarlet and Violet: While the exact processes by which Pokémon reproduce are likely never going to be revealed, the sandwiches in this game that give "Egg Power" (increasing the chance of Pokemon producing an egg, as well as said eggs hatching quicker for a period) all use Sweet ingredients, such as peanut butter, yogurt, cream cheese, jam, or marmalade.
- Psychonauts 2: Honey is used in Compton Boole's mental realm as a metaphor for Cassie O'Pia, a fellow member of the Psychic Six who vanished several years previously; Cassie was a psychic with zoolinguistic powers with a particular affinity for bees, and the use of honey as an ingredient in Compton's Cookoff reflects how much Compton misses her. While there's no explicit romance presented, other members of the Psychic Six seem to have noticed as well, as in Psi King's Sensorium, the figures that represent Compton and Cassie — Tasty and Sniffles — are linked to the senses of taste and smell respectively, which are heavily dependent on each other to function, much as Compton finds himself a wreck of a person without Cassie's presence.
Web Animation
- Helluva Boss: Milky the succubus amorously licks a popsicle when she's seducing humans on the beach to help Verosika with her bet.
Webcomics
- Extra Fabulous Comics: Parodied in a strip
where a woman says "The way to a man's heart is Through His Stomach"; she feeds him various decadent foods, including burgers and cake, in an attempt to murder him.
Web Videos
- Dimension 20:
- In Fantasy High, Gorgug and Zelda's first date takes place in Basrar's ice cream shop, where Gorgug has his first kiss (albeit on the cheek) over milkshakes.
- In A Crown of Candy, all of the player characters at the start of the season are some form of sugar-based life form from the Kingdom of Candia, ranging from rock candy to peppermint; during the course of the season, it's revealed that King Amethar Rocks created a succession crisis with his lustful ways. He conceived a child out of wedlock with Catherine Ghee, a commoner from the Dairy Islands; their union produced Saccharina of House Frostwhip, a sorcerer who uses ice cream-related powers.
Western Animation
- Batman: The Animated Series: The episode "Beware the Creeper" has Harley Quinn trying to seduce the Joker, who she calls 'Puddin', by hiding inside a literal cream pie and rising out of it on the anniversary of the accident that made him into the Joker.
- Futurama:
- The Season 4 episode "Love and Rocket" has the Planet Express crew attempting to deliver a shipment of candy hearts to Omicron Persei 8, and Fry obsesses over finding the perfect one for Leela. At the climax, when Leela has to reboot the ship due to it going full HAL-9000 on the crew and shutting off life support due to Bender dumping her, Fry notices that Leela is low on oxygen, and saves her by hooking up his air hose to her tank. When Leela notices Fry unconscious from hypoxia, she gives him CPR, and he spits out a heart that says "U Leave Me Breathless".
- In "The Sting", Fry is seemingly Killed Off for Real by a sting from a space bee, and Leela, in her grief, starts indulging in the honey from said bees, causing her to hallucinate her lost love as still being alive. However, it's ultimately subverted; Leela is suffering from a fever dream as the bee's venom is slowly killing her, and the visions of Fry are him sitting by her hospital bed, trying to get her to wake up. She ultimately does before she indulges in the honey one last time, which would likely have killed her.
- Miraculous Ladybug has played with this trope a few times, which should probably not be surprising given that the protagonist is a baker's daughter.
- Andre Glacier's entire business model is based on using ice cream to inspire romance. He boasts that his customized cones can determine the identity of the eater's soul mate. To date, his prediction has only failed once.
- Marinette has tried on several occasions to win Adrien over with baked goods, though these plots usually go awry because of Rule of Funny. The ending of "Despair Bear" does have him cheerfully snatch one of her macaroons, telling her that her baking is almost as good as her dancing.
- The final scene of season 2 features Sabrina trying to win Chloe's heart with a plate of cookies. She is crushed when Chloe refuses to even touch them.
- In "Sole Crusher", Marinette gives Zoe a large order of sweets to welcome her to Paris. While she was just being friendly, this act contributes to Marinette becoming Zoe's Closet Key, making her realize that she likes girls.
- The Owl House: Subverted. Amity makes Luz a "Fairy Pie" to welcome her back to school. In Real Life, fairy pies are old-fashioned sweets that use sugar and almonds, typically associated with rationing; here, it's a pie made with actual fairies.
Real Life
- Several slang terms related to sex draw comparisons between actions or body parts and sweet foods; probably one of the less extreme ones is "cheesecake", referring to images of women who are scantily-clad but still technically clothed, playing into the Theiss Titillation Theory.