| rdfs:comment
| - Smoking is generally considered bad for you. Thus, smoking is portrayed by the villain, so as to drive home the Anvilicious Aesop that Drugs Are Bad. It is almost never portrayed as 'cool' in today's media, and even the Badass seems to be quitting the habit. In children's cartoons, it's perfectly acceptable for a villain to smoke, especially if they blow it in somebody's face, but the hero thinks it's a disgusting habit, or they may be trying to quit. Alternatively, a heavy smoker may be shown as extremely affected by the smoke to show how bad it is. Contrast Smoking Is Cool, and No Smoking.
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| abstract
| - Smoking is generally considered bad for you. Thus, smoking is portrayed by the villain, so as to drive home the Anvilicious Aesop that Drugs Are Bad. It is almost never portrayed as 'cool' in today's media, and even the Badass seems to be quitting the habit. In children's cartoons, it's perfectly acceptable for a villain to smoke, especially if they blow it in somebody's face, but the hero thinks it's a disgusting habit, or they may be trying to quit. Alternatively, a heavy smoker may be shown as extremely affected by the smoke to show how bad it is. The rule is suspended under very specific conditions:
* The smoker is someone wise or fatherly. This uses pipes.
* The smoker is sexy.
* The smoker is incredibly Badass.
* The smoker is under extreme amounts of stress (usually associated with nervous pacing; think "father in a maternity ward").
* The smoker is celebrating; cigars are associated with 'special occasions' because they are expensive.
* The smoking is correct to the era. This is why World War II movies have soldiers smoking: in that era, everyone did.
* The smoker is French, and somebody wants to be stereotypical.
* The smoker is Native American, and only "smokum peace pipe" as a cultural gesture.
* The smoker isn't really smoking, but rather blowing bubbles from a Bubble Pipe or something like that. Also, what and how one smokes determines Good Smoking from Evil Smoking.
* A cigarette holder, especially the long ones, is an Evil Smoking indicator, usually reserved for evil bitches of all kinds. However, as symbols of class and elegance, a female using a cigarette holder could be either Good or Evil, depending on the time the work was made.
* Male users of cigarette holders are always Evil unless they're The Pink Panther. Or FDR (or an Expy thereof), who is allowed to use the holder by means of the Grandfather Clause.
* Long and fine cigarettes often indicate a bitch or a Depraved Homosexual.
* A pipe is a Good Smoking indicator, usually reserved for grandfatherly gentlemen. If the character is younger, he is calm, collected and stoic, probably an intellectual, and probably a character in a period piece. A member of law enforcement, most often a detective (or Private Eye), is more likely to use a pipe in homage to a certain famous pipe-smoking detective. If they do, this also generally makes them a Good Smoker and not a Dirty Cop. If a woman smokes a pipe, she is inevitably old enough to be a grandmother, working class or dirt-poor and from a rural area.
* Clove cigarettes are cool smoking. Alternately, they may be the sign of a pretentious hipster douchebag. Kind of like the Emo Kid version of Beard of Evil.
* The character is The Stoner, and smoking is a part of their character. Of course in a lot of films with Stoners, The Stoner gets killed so smoking is very, very bad for you indeed...
* Characters who smoke lots of Cigars are either Badass, Jerkass, or rich and bad. Generally, the Corrupt Corporate Executive and Rebel will smoke cigars. If the smoker is out of shape and well-dressed, then they're evil or at least a self-important jerk (unless they're Winston Churchill). If the smoker is muscle-bound and wearing rough clothing, they're generally either morally gray or heroic badasses. A woman who smokes a cigar is usually The Vamp.
* Cigarillos are usually sleazy, low-level evil with a tendency to droop. Of course, there is Clint Eastwood.
* Also an indicator of Evil Smoking is if they hold a cigarette in an unusual way. As Jim Jarmusch comments to Harvey Keitel in Blue In The Face: Not surprisingly, before the Surgeon General's report on tobacco use this trope was almost completely reversed. Non-Smokers were uptight and uncool, Smokers were just doing what everybody else did, and were perfectly normal, and made smoking look cool and perfectly healthy. It was more common for heroes to smoke than villains. See Also: Red Right Hand, Uncleanliness Is Next to Ungodliness, Fur and Loathing. Contrast Smoking Is Cool, and No Smoking. Examples of Good Smoking, Evil Smoking include:
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