Grapes of Luxury
To demonstrate the excess and luxury of wealth, a character will be shown reclining and being fed some small tasty food, usually grapes. The character can be reclined on a couch, a throne, a stack of luxurious pillows, or even the lap of an attractive servant. Frequently included in the scene are live performers, such as belly dancers or musicians, and servants shading or fanning the reclining character. Bonus point if the character demands that the grapes be peeled. If part of a Drunk with Power plot, expect the feeders to be unwilling and, once status quo is restored, resentful.
The poor man's version of this trope involves being pampered by a loved one, especially if that loved one is (or would like to be) romantically entangled with the recipient. See Through His Stomach.
A Luxury Trope, usually used in settings related to Ancient Rome, Ancient Greece, Arabian Nights Days, and Western depictions of the Golden Age of India. Unrelated to The Grapes of Wrath.
Film
- In A Clockwork Orange, Alex imagines being fed grapes by naked women.
- Referenced in I'm No Angel with the Mae West line, "Beulah, peel me a grape."
- During the Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony segment of Fantasia, where the male and female centaurs are all pairing up, there's a shot of one of the happy couples together where the male is reclining against the female while she feeds him grapes. The scene can be watched here.
- Caesar (Dom De Luise) gets this treatment in History of the World, Part I.
- Kingdom of Heaven played out this scenario with pomegranate seeds.
- In the 1998 film version of The Avengers, Emma Peel rescues Steed and brings him to her apartment. As he's lying on a couch, she offers him a grape as a reference to this trope.
Mrs. Peel: Grape? I bought them specially.
Literature
- In Pyramids, the hero is a prince who has a number of scantily clad young women to peel grapes and feed them to him, although he doesn't approve of this. He even asks that they don't peel the grapes, as the skin contains more vitamins.
- In Small Gods the Tyrant of Ephebe mentions that slaves will come in shortly with grapes, and that it's quite hard to stop it from happening.
- Dol feeds Meb grapes just prior to them having sex for the first time in "The Call of Earth", the second book in Orson Scott Card's "Homecoming" series.
Live Action TV
- This Saturday Night Live sketch.
- The television version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, during the Guide entry about luxury planets, showed a typical luxury-planet-owner reclining on a couch surrounded by scantily-clad women, who were feeding him individually-plucked morsels. Being cleaned by kisses, breast-rubbing, and so forth may be sensual, but it wouldn't make the grape taste very good. The guy promptly yawns and feeds the thing to his dog.
- This happens in I, Claudius a few times. At least once it was Subverted, as Claudius was being poisoned by his wife feeding him food from her own plate.
- In the 1960's Batman episode "I'll Be a Mummy's Uncle", one of King Tut's female accomplices feeds him grapes while fanning him.
Music Video
- The music video for the Cake song "Rock and Roll Lifestyle" includes an image of the rock-and-roller eating grapes off a platter.
Theatre
- In Pippin, just after Pippin mentions "fresh fruit" in his monologue about enjoying the simple things in life, a girl appears with little on her lovely body but a few bunches of grapes. "Oh yes... and women."
Western Animation
- At the end of one episode of The Simpsons, Mr. Burns is fed Spanish peanuts in bed by Smithers while recovering from a near-death experience. He orders Smithers to remove the skins of the peanuts individually. This is a direct homage to A Clockwork Orange.
- Staple shorthand for Warner Bros. in the Golden Age of Animation.
- In Futurama, Hedonism-Bot seems to have been constructed entirely to be the recipient of this treatment.
- Happens during the finale of Avatar: The Last Airbender - Azula is initially enjoying her new power but it soon becomes apparent that she has been brought up to conquer, not to rule...
Web Comics
- In this Order of the Stick, Miko sarcarstically suggests that the gang take in the luxury of being fanned and fed grapes. Haley tries to get that arranged, and is a bit annoyed to find that Roy gets the treatment later.
- Dora considers amending her employee's employment contracts to include feeding her grapes, in this Questionable Content strip.
Other
- Not canon, but this picture, drawn most likely by an extreme fan of Cirno.
- Caesars Palace in Las Vegas used to use a cartoon Caesar mascot, for example on its gaming tokens, who was depicted on a lounge chair, being fed grapes (Caesar was also holding a dagger, just in case).
