History for Main/FingerLickingPoison - TV Tropes (2024)

!!!Finger-Lickin' Poisoned Books:

[[folder: Comic Books ]]

* ComicBook/{{Diabolik}} once used this method, soaking with cyanide the text of a speech a journalist would later read to call [[SympatheticInspectorAntagonist Ginko]] an incompetent and Diabolik himself a lousy criminal. [[JustifiedTrope Diabolik chose this method specifically because he knew the journalist had this habit and wanted to kill him in a most spectacular fashion]].
* In ''ComicBook/RedRobin'' a member of the League of Assassins kills a witness, and the bailiff as collateral, by poisoning the courtroom Bible she is to put her hand on to swear in.

* ComicBook/{{Diabolik}} once used this method, soaking with cyanide the text of a speech a journalist would later read to call [[SympatheticInspectorAntagonist Ginko]] an incompetent and Diabolik himself a lousy criminal. [[JustifiedTrope Diabolik chose this method specifically because he knew the journalist had this habit and wanted to kill him in a most spectacular fashion]].
* In ''ComicBook/RedRobin'' a member of the League of Assassins kills a witness, and the bailiff as collateral, by poisoning the courtroom Bible she is to put her hand on to swear in.

[[folder: Film - Live Action ]]

* ''Film/TheInternecineProject'' ended with the murderer receiving a hand-written notebook from one of his victims. On the last page it said [[spoiler:"I arranged for this to be sent to you after I am dead, and the pages have been soaked in poison that is absorbed through the skin".]]

* ''Film/TheInternecineProject'' ended with the murderer receiving a hand-written notebook from one of his victims. On the last page it said [[spoiler:"I arranged for this to be sent to you after I am dead, and the pages have been soaked in poison that is absorbed through the skin".]]

[[folder: Literature ]]

* OlderThanPrint: ''[[Literature/ArabianNights The Arabian Nights]]'' tale ''The Tale of the Vizier and the Sage Duban'', wherein the Duban, sentenced to execution by a treacherous king, gives him a book with orders not to read it until after his head has been cut off. After that's done, the head comes back to life and instructs the king to turn three pages with his left hand. When the king turns the pages (naturally, licking his finger along the way) and finds nothing written there, the Duban essentially tells him the pages were poisoned and if the Duban had to go, he was [[TakingYouWithMe taking the king with him]]. SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome for a [[LosingYourHead severed head]]. (Unfortunately, this makes the vizier who ''caused'' the execution a KarmaHoudini, as he didn't touch the book and sure as hell wouldn't after seeing what happened to his king.)

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

%%* ''[[Series/EleventhHour 11th Hour]]'' used this one early in its first season.

[[folder: Live Action

one early in its first season.

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* A variant appears in the old TV show, ''WesternAnimation/JacobTwoTwo'', where a bad guy puts into motion a plot to brainwash people into buying his shoddy newspaper via this method. [[spoiler:He fails, as the titular character and his friends don't lick their fingers while reading and are able to figure out his scam.]]

* A variant appears in the old TV show, ''WesternAnimation/JacobTwoTwo'', where a bad guy puts into motion a plot to brainwash people into buying his shoddy newspaper via this method. [[spoiler:He fails, as the titular character and his friends don't lick their fingers while reading and are able to figure out his scam.]]

!!! Other Lickable Objects:

[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]

* ''Manga/CaseClosed'':
** In one chapter, a man was murdered via [[spoiler: poison applied to the temperature control of a cooking range on which a pot of water was boiling, after which he counted money and licked the poison from his fingers]].
** One of the movies had a woman murdered in a similar way. [[spoiler: her make-up artist put the poison in her make-up, and then gave her normal chocolates on an airplane trip. The woman pinched her nose to pop her ears, getting the poison on her fingers, and then ate a chocolate and licked her fingers, ingesting the poison.]]
** Another example: a musician is murdered by [[spoiler: poison applied on the inside of his jacket sleeve]] and asked to perform a song that required him to throw off the jacket and take a pose where the poison would transfer to his hand. The food, all non-poisoned, were things like sushi and nigiri and there were no eating utensils.
** Another man was poisoned via a poisoned wet napkin while eating sushi.
** And YET ANOTHER was poisoned because his murderer put poison on the spot on the lazy susan between two dishes that the victim was allergic to, and so he kept getting poison on his fingers every time he saw said dishes.
** A man who disliked sour things was nevertheless poisoned by a lemon wedge in his drink because, as part of a marketing gimmick, he had eaten a miraculin berry and was unable to taste the sourness.
** Even detectives aren't immune to this trope! He died [[spoiler: biting his nails]], not realizing that [[spoiler: his partner had betrayed him]] and poisoned [[spoiler: everyone's cup handles except for her own]].

* ''Manga/CaseClosed'':
** In one chapter, a man was murdered via [[spoiler: poison applied to the temperature control of a cooking range on which a pot of water was boiling, after which he counted money and licked the poison from his fingers]].
** One of the movies had a woman murdered in a similar way. [[spoiler: her make-up artist put the poison in her make-up, and then gave her normal chocolates on an airplane trip. The woman pinched her nose to pop her ears, getting the poison on her fingers, and then ate a chocolate and licked her fingers, ingesting the poison.]]
** Another example: a musician is murdered by [[spoiler: poison applied on the inside of his jacket sleeve]] and asked to perform a song that required him to throw off the jacket and take a pose where the poison would transfer to his hand. The food, all non-poisoned, were things like sushi and nigiri and there were no eating utensils.
** Another man was poisoned via a poisoned wet napkin while eating sushi.
** And YET ANOTHER was poisoned because his murderer put poison on the spot on the lazy susan between two dishes that the victim was allergic to, and so he kept getting poison on his fingers every time he saw said dishes.
** A man who disliked sour things was nevertheless poisoned by a lemon wedge in his drink because, as part of a marketing gimmick, he had eaten a miraculin berry and was unable to taste the sourness.
** Even detectives aren't immune to this trope! He died [[spoiler: biting his nails]], not realizing that [[spoiler: his partner had betrayed him]] and poisoned [[spoiler: everyone's cup handles except for her own]].

[[folder: Comic Books ]]

* One ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' comic featured the Joker's venom being applied to postage stamps. [[spoiler:The twist being that the Joker didn't do it.]]
* In ''ComicBook/RedRobin'' Funnel kills a member of the League of Assassins by poisoning the crucifix she knows he always kisses after completing a kill.
* In the classic "ComicBook/TheJudasContract" storyline in ''ComicBook/TeenTitans'', ComicBook/{{Deathstroke}} captures Gar 'Changeling' Logan by drugging the gum in the envelopes Gar is using to respond to his fan mail.

* One ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' comic featured the Joker's venom being applied to postage stamps. [[spoiler:The twist being that the Joker didn't do it.]]
* In ''ComicBook/RedRobin'' Funnel kills a member of the League of Assassins by poisoning the crucifix she knows he always kisses after completing a kill.
* In the classic "ComicBook/TheJudasContract" storyline in ''ComicBook/TeenTitans'', ComicBook/{{Deathstroke}} captures Gar 'Changeling' Logan by drugging the gum in the envelopes Gar is using to respond to his fan mail.

[[folder: Film - Live Action ]]
* In the 2010 vigilante film ''Boy Wonder'', Sean Donovan writes a letter to the criminal who killed his mother, saying he forgives him but he must know if his father hired him to commit the crime. So the criminal won't incriminate himself, Sean tells him to send back the enclosed self-addressed envelope with a red stamp if his father is innocent, or a black stamp if guilty. The criminal licks the stamp and dies on the floor of his cell. It was the red stamp, but Sean had already killed his father thinking he was guilty.
* In ''Film/AJollyBadFellow'', Bowles-Otterly murders Dr. Hughes by coating the tip of his pencil in poison, as Hughes habitually licks the tip of his pencil before writing.
* In the AwfulBritishSexComedy ''Film/TheNakedDetective'', this trope was [[InvertedTrope inverted]] by having it be the way the murder method was ''identified'', rather than committed. The detective had been leaning against the window frame while reading the decedent's will, licked his fingers to turn the page and immediately spat at the awful taste... and realised that the dead guy's antacid pills had been left on the same window earlier while [[spoiler:his germophobic son was spraying bug repellent everywhere, inadvertently poisoning them]].

[[folder: Literature ]]
* In Creator/RobinHobb's ''[[Literature/RealmOfTheElderlings Assassin's Apprentice]]'', one of Fitz-Chivalry's assassination ploys was to [[spoiler: poison the cutlery instead of the food.]]
* In ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' [[{{Defictionalization}} stamp-collecting]], the original Assassins' Guild 3p stamp (the Thrupenny Dreadful), is very rare, at least gummed. The in-universe reason for this is that they were recalled due to unsubstantiated rumours that the Guild was using it to fulfill contracts.
* ''Literature/JoePickett'': In ''In Plain Sight'', J.W. Keely murders a prisoner by smuggling him a can of chewing tobacco laced with cyanide. He hopes that the prison guard who probed the tobacco with his finger doesn't lick his fingers afterwards.
* During the [[Literature/{{Belgariad}} Mallorean]] series, Sadi kills a man by coating the man's soup spoon with poison.
* Non-poison example: In ''Literature/RedSeasUnderRedSkies'', Locke and Jean win a card game by sprinkling a sleep-inducing drug on the cards. One of their opponents is notorious for eating and licking her fingers while she plays, and she forfeits the game when the drug puts her to sleep.
* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'': twice, with the same method. First the prologue of A Feast for Crows: [[spoiler: The Alchemist (Jaqen H'ghar's new personality) pays Pate, a novice in the Citadel with a poisoned coin. Pate [[TastyGold bites the coin,]] then the dust.]] Second, [[spoiler:Arya's first sanctioned killing in Dance: she deliberately botches a cutpursery to replace one of the coins of a ship owner with a poisoned one. The owner then pays a greedy insurer with said coin. The insurer also has a habit of biting the coins...]].
* ''Literature/TheThinkingMachine'': In "My First Experience with the Great Logician", the narrator accidentally poisons himself by smoking a cigar he stored in a jacket pocket where, several months earlier, he had carried a packet of insecticidal powder. Some of the powder had leaked and coated the tip of the cigar.
* ''The Three Widows'', by Creator/ElleryQueen had a victim being slowly poisoned even though everything she ate and drank was carefully screened beforehand. It turned out the would-be killer was [[spoiler: her doctor]] and the poison was [[spoiler: on the thermometer with which he took her temperature each day.]]
* In ''Literature/TheAccursedKings'', Countess Mahaut of Artois poisons the newborn king by having him put her poison-coated finger in his mouth as she holds him, making this a literal FingerLickingPoison.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]
* In one episode of ''Series/{{Benson}}'', a person with a habit of sucking on the earpiece of his reading glasses was killed by poison placed on the earpiece.
* In the ''Series/CriminalMinds'' episode "Poison," the team discovers that groups of people who had been slipped LSD had ingested it by licking bank envelopes whose seals were coated in the drug. Later in the same episode, the [=UnSub=] tries to poison a group of people with botulism via the same method.
* ''Series/{{CSI}}'':
** During the course of an attempted murder, the apparent victim spilled ricin on her pen, and then killed herself by biting the end of it. [[ArtisticLicenseBiology This isn't actually possible]], as while injected ricin kills in very small doses, a human body can survive ingesting nearly a whole gram of it.
** In an episode of ''Series/{{CSINY}}'', a woman is killed via poisoned toenail polish, worn by the young woman working as the "table" at a restaurant serving BodySushi. [[spoiler:The young woman was the victim's former personal assistant, fired after refusing her boss's sexual advances and unable to find better work than the body sushi job. On discovering her former PA's new job, the victim took to specifically requesting her table in order to continue harassing her, and particularly enjoyed sucking on the young woman's toes.]]
* ''Series/DeathInParadise'':
** In "Damned If You Do...", the VictimOfTheWeek is poisoned by a lethal dose of poison being placed on the end of his pen before he retires to write a speech. The killer then poisons the dinner being eating by everyone, including themself, with a milder dose in an attempt to make it appear he died from food poisoning.
** In "One for the Road", the killer gives the VictimOfTheWeek an envelope with a poisoned seal, knowing that the victim will lick the envelope, seal it and place it in her bag. Then, after she dies, the killer doses her glass with poison to make it look like she had drunk it.
* ''Series/FatherBrown'':
** In "The Time Machine", one victim was killed by having strychnine placed in the bowl of his pipe.
** In "The Wrath of Baron Samedi", a musician is murdered when the killer coats the reed of his saxophone in poison. The killer later dusts Father Brown's toothbrush with the same poison.
* In the ''Series/JonathanCreek'' episode "The House Of Monkeys" the victim was sent a request for a signed copy of his book. The murderer included a stamped addressed envelope to send the book in... stamped, addressed and poisoned with a psychotropic drug on the flap you lick.
* In an old ''Series/PerryMason'' episode, it turns out the murder weapon was poison on a brooch and a dress with no pockets. The murderer was the dress designer and the victim was the model picked to show off the dress in question. The dress was designed to wrap around the wearer in a complicated way that required both hands to accomplish, and then be pinned closed with the brooch. Since the dress had no pockets, of course the model would put the brooch in her mouth while tying the dress and got a lethal dose of the poison. [[spoiler:But it misfired -someone else tried the dress on first.]] The murderer tried to cover up the method by putting more poison into the bottle of champagne used to toast the success of the fashion show, but of course Perry saw through that one.
* There was a ''Series/RemingtonSteele'' episode where the poison was in the glue on some envelopes Steele and Laura were expected to lick.
* ''Series/PortCharles'' an enemy of Scott's puts poison in the glue of some envelopes to try and get him. Aside from sickening Scott, there's a very tense scene where his daughter Serena almost licks one of them.
* In ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'' George's fiancee is accidentally poisoned by the cheap glue on the wedding invitation envelopes, because George was too stingy to pay for better ones (and too lazy to seal any invitations himself). And Susan herself for some reason didn't use a sponge rather than lick the envelopes herself---poison or not, those seals taste terrible.
* ''Series/WhodunnitUK'': In [[spoiler:"Death at the Top"]], the VictimOfTheWeek, who has an OralFixation, is murdered when the killer poisons the tip of his pen, which he compulsively chews on during a board meeting.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Tabletop Games ]]

* In the ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'' adventure path ''Curse of the Crimson Throne'', [[spoiler: the King of Korvosa is killed this way, setting the entire plot in motion. The poison was placed on playing cards, and the king is a habitual nail-biter.]]

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theatre]]
* In ''Theatre/TheCruciferOfBlood'', St. Claire is murdered when the killer places a poison dart in the mouthpiece of his opium pipe. When he inhales, he sucks in the dart and stabs himself in the throat.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

* A poisoned letter stamp in ''VisualNovel/ApolloJusticeAceAttorney.'' Also upgraded to poisoned nail polish, because the intended victim, [[spoiler: a young girl named Vera Misham]], had a tendency to bite her nails a lot.
* ''A Game at Dinner'', an in-game short story in some ''[[Franchise/TheElderScrolls Elder Scrolls]]'' games, has [[MagnificentBastard Helseth]] implying to his assembled dinner guests that he put poison on the cutlery of someone he knows has been spying on him. [[spoiler:It turns out to be a subversion, however, as Helseth was [[BluffingTheMurderer Bluffing The Spy]], and the real poison is the antidote he offers to the spy if they confess.]]
* Finger-licking isn't explicitly mentioned, but in ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII'', Agostino Barbarigo dies after receiving several poisoned letters from the Assassins.
* In ''VideoGame/AviaryAttorney'' luxury chocolates with a custom wolfsbane-derived filling are ''so'' poisonous that a character who eats the wrapping which has traces of chocolate on it is hospitalized.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Real Life ]]

* While not highly toxic by itself, Dimethyl Sulfoxide (DMSO) has the property of being quickly and easily absorbed through skin contact, allowing easy contact absorption of whatever else happens to be mixed with it. This allows a deadly but hard to deliver poison to be easily absorbed through the skin. It is regularly used as a solvent in industry and scientific research, so it's quite easy to get hold of too.

[[/folder]]