"Boobs are near the center of the universe, until you turn twenty-five or so. Which is also when young men's auto insurance rates go down. This is not a coincidence."
For some men, it's very easy to forget what they are doing when a sexy woman strolls past and lose control, doing things like walking into trees, tripping over themselves, dropping fragile objects, causing a Human Traffic Jam, etc. Mostly a comedy trope.
If this is induced intentionally by the seducer in question when We Need a Distraction, it falls instead into Show Some Leg.
Compare Chic and Awe, Sex Sells (but What Were They Selling Again?), Sexy Coat Flashing, and Show Some Leg. Contrast, naturally, Not Distracted by the Sexy, Ignore the Fanservice, and The Power of Lust (which is when the sexy inspires rather than distracts). This may occur after a Crash Through the Harem.
If the viewers are the ones Distracted By The Sexy, that's Best Known for the Fanservice. If the distracted party finds himself lost in thought over the distraction, it becomes Eating the Eye Candy. If distracted by someone that their orientation wouldn't generally be attracted to, that's Stupid Sexy Flanders. If communication is attempted, it can cause Gibberish of Love. Expect Favors for the Sexy by the distracted. If a character distracts themselves by noticing their reflection in a mirror, that's Distracted by My Own Sexy. See Cuteness Overload for the non-sexual, non-human variant. Compare also with Screw the Rules, I'm Beautiful! and I Have Boobs, You Must Obey!.
The Seducer or Seductress are (usually) young, attractive characters that employ this trope.
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- Films — Live-Action
- Literature
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- Video Games
- Western Animation
Other Examples:
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Advertising
- Air New Zealand Safety Videos: The guys demonstrating the brace positions in a canoe in "Safety in Paradise" keep sneaking glances at the model in the bikini on the beach.
- An car insurance ad for Allstate has a young man driving a car see a "hot babe out jogging" and run his car into a light pole. The big joke being that as with all the ads in this particular campaign, the "hot babe out jogging" is Dean Winters, this time adding a pink headband and barbells to his rumpled suit as the character "Mayhem".
- A Dutch insurance company, known for their slogan "Even Apeldoorn bellen" ("Time to call Apeldoorn", the name of the city where they have their main office) has a number of rather clever TV ads. In one, two roadworkers are digging a rather large hole (the road is at chest level); one of them is wielding a pickaxe. Then a stunning pair of legs walks by (that's roughly what you see, due to the camera crop), the guys look at them approvingly, the pickaxe swings down once more, a metallic "clunk" is heard and a jet of water spouts up. Slogan text blends in.
- A cellphone commercial from The '90s featured a rollerblader navigating a city. (We see this from his perspective.) About halfway through, he spots a sexy lady and keeps looking at her as he passes. He looks back at his path and sees the truck he's about to crash into. He then uses his cellphone to call his doctor and say, "I did it again."
- A radio ad for the Chicago market has a motorist on Lake Shore Drive paying too much attention to a beach volleyball player and rear-ending another car.
- In a DKNY commercial where Emily Ratajakowski goes out walking a dog only dressed in her underwear, this is the result. Especially when a driver loses control as there's a closeup on her dog... and the car hits another car. Everybody Lives. (Including the dog.)
- Subverted in a 2000 ad for Kronenbourg 1664 beer.
It starts out with one awe-struck construction worker obliviously swinging a pickaxe while gazing at a woman, while another equally oblivious worker climbs out of a manhole in front of him. Cue a quick camera change and a sickening squish noise. It goes on like this for forty seconds, with butchers slicing off fingers, men getting hit by busses, and utility workers getting electrocuted. They're not into the woman herself, but her beer.
- A 1984 ad for Maaco (auto painting and repair chain) has a Too Dumb to Live guy staring at several women walking by and ends up driving his car right inside a moving van. Uh, oh. Better get Maaco, indeed.
- A very darkly humorous version of this (both played straight and with a gender inversion) occurs in this German ad for the fashion store NewYorker. The ad shows an attractive young woman in a minidress strolling in the city, passing several people: a skateboarder, a tattooist making tattoos for some gang members, and some firemen helping someone escape a burning building. All of them are distracted by her looks, which ends up spelling disaster (which she ignores every time): the skateboarder rolls out onto the street and is hit by a car, the tattooist accidentally tattoos a heart on a gang member's back and is shot by the other gang members, and the firemen misplace their safety net, causing the guy in the burning building to fall on the ground. She then passes by another man, whom she flirts with, but then she accidentally walks backwards right into a pit in the sidewalk, which is then filled in by rocks immediately afterwards. The ad ends on a shot of a small piece of her dress partially buried in the sidewalk while someone uses a jackhammer nearby.
- Ads for the Australian pantyhose makers RazzaMatazz had a gorgeous woman (wearing the brand being advertised) going about her business when her skirt blows up in the wind — and total chaos and hilarity ensues among the innocent men going about their business around her.
- The first commercial for the Sega Dreamcast in America ended with Sonic the Hedgehog losing his balance from the on-light of the Dreamcast and falling, ready to be caught by a football player, only for Sarah to walk by, distracting the player and causing Sonic to faceplant on the ground, losing rings in the process.
- Batman Vs. Bateman: Bateman is too distracted by how hot Catwoman is to stop her jewel store robbery. Not that he would have probably had much luck if he tried. He's not any better at resisting Poison Ivy either, although she uses pheromones.
- Played for Drama in a 2002 road safety commercial from Ireland; a man notices a beautiful woman while driving, and because he wasn't watching the road, he crashes his car into a woman walking her son home from school. Mum suffers a broken arm and bloodied face, while the little boy dies in hospital, and the driver is sent to prison.
Animation
- Happy Friends: In episode 2 of Season 2, Careful S. distracts a couple of guards by throwing magazines their way. The magazines' covers depict beautiful women which distract the guards.
- Motu Patlu (2012): In "Angry Clouds", several townspeople notice and get distracted by Motu while he is Disguised in Drag.
- Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf: In Great War in the Bizarre World episode 5, the goats have Jollie dress up like a female bee in order to distract the bee guards at the palace and get into the building. The intended reaction is given by the bees... until Jollie turns around, revealing he looks rather ugly as a girl and causing the bees to faint in disgust.
Audio Plays
- Sonic the Hedgehog Presents: The Chaotix Casefiles: Implied; when Vector first sees Torii, he stops to admire her (his Private Eye Monologue painting her as a vamp, despite the professor not being anything like what he described), and he's noticeably flustered when she addresses him specifically. All three of the Chaotix evidently aren't paying much attention to the specifics of her case—Charmy and Espio just assume the honorarium means they'll get paid—but Vector's motivation simply seems to be that he finds her attractive.
Comedy
- Bill Engvall discusses looking at colleges with his daughter:
Bill Engvall: I'll tell you, it's a real slap in the face when you walk onto a college campus with your daughter and you catch some guy checking her out. [murmurs of agreement] Yeah. Then I realized it was a slap in the face; my wife caught me checking out college chicks. [laughter] Sorry, I'm a guy.
Comic Strips
- Garfield:
- Happens to Jon in the June 20, 1981 strip. It causes him to crash his bike.
- In the July 26, 2010 strip, on a trip to the beach, Jon's mind seems to break at the sight of Liz in a bikini.
- In Li'l Abner, "Stupefyin' Jones" stunned any male who gazed upon her, except if they were wearing special glasses. In the stage and movie adaptation, she was played by Julie Newmar in a skimpy skintight body suit.
- In this strip◊ by Quino, a man is watching a football match, when he's distracted by the fact that his neighbor forgot to close her window when she went to take a bath. Just then, one of the teams scores a very dramatic goal. He's so enraged at missing it that he throws his drink through the window and hits the neighbor in the head.
- This is the primary function of the heroine in Wally Wood's Sally Forth; the first time she saw action was when she lured a troop of Commies to their death by bathing in a river.
Films — Animation
- Aladdin (1992, Disney): Jasmine fakes Jafar's third wish (that is for her to fall in love with him, one of the things the Genie cannot grant) when she notices that Aladdin was trying to get to the lamp, trying to keep him from noticing.
- In An American Tail, Tony gets a little... um... distracted by Bridget.
- In Asterix Conquers America, Obelix gets distracted by Panacea and ends up bumping into Chief Vitalstatistix.
- Atlantis: The Lost Empire: "You do swim, do you not?", "Oh, I swim pretty girl— pr-pretty good! Good, I swim pretty good."
- Twice in A Gentlemen's Duel:
- Weatherby when he first arrives.
"Ah, m'lady, your grace is matched only by your boobies — I mean, beauty."
- The butler when the lady's breasts jiggle from the mechs' footsteps shaking the ground.
- Weatherby when he first arrives.
- By the end of The Jungle Book (1967), Mowgli is still ambivalent about going to the man village and Baloo thinks he can talk him into staying in the jungle... until Mowgli spies a girl his age from the village who acts in an obviously flirtatious yet romantic manner towards him. Her pull, it turns out, is at least as strong as Kaa's.
- At the end of Katy La Oruga, once Katy becomes a sexy butterfly, she inspires this in a pair of crows, causing them to fly into a tree after she flies by.
- The LEGO Movie:
- Emmett's first encounter with Wyldstyle:
Emmett: Well, guess I'm going to have to report...
[Wyldstyle flips her hood down, revealing her face.]
Emmett: Yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy... - In the Old West, whilst Wyldstyle is explaining about the various worlds, Emmett's attention slips and he ends up ogling her, with her dialogue switching to things like "blah blah blah I like you but I'm angry at you for some reason blah blah blah".
- The LEGO Batman Movie: Bruce Wayne is so busy gawking at Barbara Gordon that he doesn't realize he's adopted Dick Grayson until Alfred points it out a week later.
- Emmett's first encounter with Wyldstyle:
- The Nightmare Before Christmas: Sally takes off her shapely, slim leg to distract Oogie so her hands can untie Santa.
- In Once Upon a Forest, Abigail gets in a fight with a mouse named Willy. It causes the two of them to plummet from the tree they're both in and it causes Willy to lose the acorn they were fighting over. He turns to yell at Abigail and this trope ensues.
Willy: JUST WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE...! You're... Gosh, I hope I didn't hurt you when you threw me down.
- Ratatouille: Linguini with Colette, much to Rémy's chagrin. If you look closely, you can see that this is what caused him to spill the soup in the beginning, setting the whole plot into motion.
- Space Jam: This happens to Bugs Bunny in Lola Bunny's introductory appearance when she enters the gym to try out for the team.
- Spirit from Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron gets distracted by Rain, leading to his second capture.
- Inverted in Starship Troopers: Invasion. At first, Ratzass gets his ass handed to him in a sparring match with Chao. Then Ice Blonde flashes him, and this seemingly inspires him into a second wind, which lets him win.
- In Tangled, when the thief Flynn Rider (Eugene Fiztherbert) sees Rapunzel for the first time, he falls in love with her and gets distracted, aroused and infatuated by her beauty, cuteness and goodness.
- Toy Story 2: While searching Al's Toy Barn, Hamm, Rex, Slinky, and Mr. Potato Head end up in the Barbie aisle, where they see a bunch of bikini-clad Barbie dolls having a pool party. They all stop and stare for a moment, completely forgetting their mission until Hamm realizes that the girls might know a way to get them to Al's office.
Mr. Potato Head: I'm a married spud! I'm a married spud!
- In Turning Red, Mei passes by the convenience store while rushing home in her panda form, then stops, comes back, and takes a moment to ogle Devon before continuing on her way.
- White Snake (2019): In The Stinger, two men on a boat are distracted by the Jade Workshop owner, only to collide with another boat.
Jokes
- A man is walking with his wife when he sees a young woman in a short skirt getting into a bus and keeps looking. His wife tells him acidly "I suppose you think I didn't catch you staring at the girl getting in the bus?" "What bus?"
Magazines
- Taken to Self-Demonstrating Article levels by the cover of the June 2007 issue of Latina Magazine (covergirl: Eva Longoria) in re an article about Enrique Iglesias:
ENRIQUE: Tall, Dark, and Handsome. Oh, and he sings too!
- A MAD Magazine cover parodying Sherlock Holmes, named inside as Shermlock Shomes, shows the famous detective and Dr. Whatsit starting after a hairy gentleman with a knife in his back, a bone, and a guy in his pocket, later implied to be "Arty Morty", but seeing an "interesting turn" in the case and instead following a woman with a conspicuous figure who, outlined against the lights, constitutes "a much more suspicious character to follow!"
Manhua
- Old Master Q has a strip where an art gallery displays the picture of a nude woman right next to a pillar. Half of the male patrons in said gallery, including the titular character, ends up getting distracted by the picture and running into the pillar, and the clinic next to said gallery had a field day.
Music
- Inverted in Whitney Avalon's song "Let's Not Talk About That", where Whitney is distracted from the sexy dancing by Jordan Maron's insistence on talking about politics.
- "What Was I Thinkin'" by Dierks Bentley:
I was thinkin 'bout a little white tank top
Sittin' right there in the middle by me
I was thinkin' bout a long kiss
Man just gotta get goin'
Where the night might lead
I know what I was feelin'
But what was I thinkin' - "Baby's Got Her Blue Jeans On" by Mel McDaniel is a good example of this.
She can't help it if she's made that way
She's not to blame if they look her way
She ain't really tryin' to cause a scene
It just comes naturally
Lord, the girl can't help it - "Bigger Than the Beatles" by Joe Diffie has a mutual example of this. A waitress in a bar and a musician who performs in the bar are very much in love. Sometimes she forgets an order because she's thinking about how handsome he is, and sometimes he forgets to sing a chorus because he's thinking about how beautiful she is.
- DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince:
- In "Parents Just Don't Understand", Fresh Prince's night is going well until his companion unbuttons her shirt. Due to this, he fails to notice a police car and gets pulled over for speeding. This leads to an arrest and no doubt severe punishment from his parents.
- In "Just One of Those Days", Prince, in a desperate attempt to get to work on time, steals a child's bike and rides away on it, catching the attention of a squad of twelve cop cars. Just as he's about to shake them off, he gets distracted by a pretty girl who walks by and promptly wipes out inside a construction zone.
- "La raja de tu falda" by Spanish group Estopa is all about the singer getting distracted with a girl's skirt and having an accident on the way to a concert — and then breaking his guitar's strings for the same reason.
- "Bettina, zieh dir bitte etwas an" (Bettina, put some clothes on) by Fettes Brot has the chorus "Bettina, wrap up your boobs". The song was inspired by the outfit of the host in a late night, call-in TV game show.
- In the Four Preps' "The Girl Without a Top", a naval captain runs his submarine into a pier when he spots her through his periscope.
- The singer of "Man on a Mission" in !HERO: The Rock Opera ends the song with "Who's that beautiful girl?", segueing into "Secrets of the Heart".
- "Long Cool Woman (in a Black Dress)" by The Hollies. An FBI agent is about to signal a raid on a Bad Guy Bar but the eponymous woman catches his eye:
With just one look I was a bad mess
cause that long cool woman had it all - "I Don't Want This Night to End" by Luke Bryan:
You got your hands up
You're rocking in my truck
You got the radio on
You're singing every song
I'm set on cruise control
I'm slowing losing hold of everything I got
You're looking so damn hot
And I don't know what road we're on
Or where we've been from starin' at you
Girl, all I know is I don't want this night to end - "Younger Men" by K.T. Oslin:
That's why younger men are starting to catch my eye
I'm strating to stop what I'm doing
Just to turn around and watch them walk by
[...]
Woah, look over here
We got a cute little ol' runner on the right
Blue shorts, no shirt
Whoo, you're looking good, darling
That's right, stay in shape'' - In Del Reeves' "Girl on the Billboard", the singer notes how the titular billboard featuring a girl in just a Modesty Towel has caused crashes on Route 66.
- Bruce Springsteen:
- "Crush on You": the narrator is constantly getting distracted by beautiful girls to the point of wanting to drop everything and just run after them.
- Also these lines from "Loose Change":
Yeah, I knew she was trouble but trouble sure was lookin' fine
When I pulled her close what I knew kinda slipped my mind
- "Bobbie Ann Mason" by Rick Trevino mentions the title character as being a sexy distraction in school:
It wasn't the books that I didn't read
It wasn't the teachers who tried to teach me
It wasn't that varsity baseball coach
Who kept on telling them locker room jokes
It was Bobbie Ann Mason, back in high school
She was way too cute, she was way too cool
How was I gonna get an education
Sittin' right in back of Bobbie Ann Mason - Trace Adkins' "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk" is a video about this trope in action — the hottest girl on the dance floor is so hot the guys can't stop staring at her.
- In Cobra Starship's tie-in video for "Snakes on a Plane (Bring It)", the band members smuggle live snakes through airport security in a suitcase and guitar case, by having Maja Ivarsson distract the guy who's manning the X-ray scanner.
- In Chris Cornell's "Nearly Forgot My Broken Heart," set in Western times on the day he and Eric Roberts are among prisoners due to be hanged, an onlooker played by Elena "Ms. Fanservice roles a specialty" Satine uses this tactic as part of a plan to save Chris. At the end it's implied that she's going to do it again for Eric. P.S. It does work the first time.
- MC Hammer's "U Can't Touch This" features a scene where Hammer suddenly stops dancing to admire the backside of the girl dancing in front of him.
- Eric Schwartz's "Kosha Boy", a parody of "Soulja Boy", has the Kosha Boy "try to set an example", but he gets distracted by "the girl [he wants] to schtup in the third row."
- Happens to a prison guard dog in Blake Shelton's "Old Red". Old Red has the best nose in the county and never lets a prisoner escape. So the inmate singing the song starts bringing an in-heat female hound past Red's enclosure. Then once he's sure Red's going to remember, he stages his escape. When the prison warden unleashes Red, Red runs after the female instead of the prisoner.
- Weezer's video for "If You're Wondering If I Want You To" has this happen to two people: one standing in the street watching said girl, and the other driving a pickup truck, which hits the one standing in the street.
Myths & Religion
- Avoiding this is apparently the reasons certain sects of certain religions insist on their women dressing in a conservative manner. Even religious sects that don't require modesty for women's day-to-day lives will still ask that they cover their shoulders and legs when attending services.
- Classical Mythology:
- If Actaeon had been thinking with the right head at the time, he probably would have realized it was not a good idea to stand around watching the adamantly virginal Artemis bathe. And he might have survived.
- Fittingly enough this happens between goddess of love and fanservice, herself, Aphrodite and Adonis. Obsessed with him since he was a baby and unintentionally starts a Love Triangle with Persephone as the Veronica as soon as he's grown up, she's so obsessed with him that she's not doing her job of helping OTHER people fall in love/lust to instead (awkwardly) join him on hunts and stick with him 24/7.
- Invoked in Norse Mythology, where the gods needed to ensure that the giant they commissioned didn't finish the wall around Asgard on time so they could withhold payment from him, since the giant demanded one goddess for a wife as part of said payment. The giant relied on his magical stallion to help him transport the materials for building the wall, so Trickster God Loki shapeshifts into a mare to lure the stallion away from the giant. It works, but after Loki in mare form is caught by the stallion, he ends up impregnated with the eight-legged foal that eventually becomes Odin's horse Sleipnir.
- A story in both Jewish folklore and The Qur'an: after the other Egyptian women mock her for making a fool of herself over Joseph, Potiphar's wife invites them over, then calls him in while they're cutting fruit. Multiple injuries ensue.
- The Trojan War:
- At one point in The Iliad, Hera goes to enormous lengths to seduce Zeus long enough for his pro-Trojan battle manipulations to fall apart.
- Said to have saved Helen's life. After the Achaeans have breached Troy's walls and are sacking the city, her first husband Menelaus is furious at her as can be expected and is portrayed in various accounts as ordering his troops to execute her or even about to kill her himself before her beauty stays their/his hands (helped by some accounts saying her clothes were getting torn off in all of the drama).
Podcasts
- Happens several times in ''The Fallen Gods’’.
- When Tuatha fails several perception and intuition checks when the group is trying to procure a ship, it's chalked up to her being distracted by the hot fake ship's captain. She's also willing to employ this herself if it means she can avoid an actual fight.
- There's also Mistress Mara the merchant, who causes this in everybody. Solvin has to step outside because it's so awkward he's about to crawl out of his skin.
Pro Wrestling
- During a Full Impact Pro Falls Count Anywhere match CM Punk tossed Homicide onto a table where a strip show was happening and, without missing a beat, Homicide rolled onto his elbows to enjoy it. Punk stomped onto the table, stomped on Homicide's head and then noticed the strippers, though his reaction was more so appalled by the sexy.
- At the 2015 FIP Heatstroke Earl Kooter was more interested in making out with Veronica Voxx than watching his Trailer Park Nation partner Zane Riley wrestle. Riley ended up getting pinned by Gary Jay when he ended up paying too much attention to Kooter and Voxx make out.
- The Great American Bash 2007 had a backstage skit where Matt Hardy started lecturing Jeff Hardy that he had to stay focused to win his upcoming match. Candice Michelle, who just had a match, started pouring water all over herself to cool off, leaving Matt, Jeff, and then Ron Simmons gawking. Jeff later lost his match.
- Happens to a photographer in this picture from Allysin Kay's Instagram. She wasn't above trying if it would help Chest Flexor in Absolute Intense Wrestling either, though the Midwest Militia usually took a more direct and violent approach to Flexor Industries' problems.
- Mr. America lost an arm-wrestling match to Vince McMahon after Sable flashed him.
- The whole feud between George "The Animal" Steele and Randy "Macho Man" Savage in 1986-1987 WWE was centered around Steele's attraction to Miss Elizabeth, though, unlike the more overtly sexy WWE Divas who would follow, she didn't actually do anything to provoke this reaction. She was just there.
- Happened once to Vladimir Kozlov in a backstage segment on WWE SmackDown. But then, it was Beth Phoenix, courtesy of being kissed by her Under the Mistletoe.
- This was Debra's schtick during her WWF run as a valet for Jeff Jarrett and Owen Hart. She accompanied them to the ring wore business suits. At a critical point in the match, she would get up on the apron and unleash the "puppies", as Jerry Lawler called it - that is, unbutton her blazer to reveal the skimpy bra underneath. Usually she used it to distract the opponent, but if that didn't work she could almost always find some way to use the puppies to cause a distraction.
Roleplay
- The "Hallucination" psi-power from A Shock to the System involves "Cramming an image of a pretty fem performing an act of depravity up [an enemy's] temporal lobe".
Tabletop Games
- Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition:
- The 3.0 non-official book Nymphology introduces new rules for lewd situations. For example, a Concentration check can be required for a spellcaster facing a naked and attractive opponent, in order to not flub a spell. Although modified by the foe's Charisma, the check is rather easy (since most spellcasters max out their Concentration skill), so only a complete novice is really at risk of being distracted.
- In the 3.5 supplement Fiendish Codex I: Hordes of the Abyss, one of the Abyssal Heritor feats is "Otherworldly Countenance", which allows to choose between wretchedly hideous or stunningly beautiful. If beautiful, the character can cause a fascination effect a set number of times per day by focusing attention on a subject. Note that no mention is made of the subject needing to be of the opposite sex (or even the same species, in fact).
- In the Mutants & Masterminds supplement about Japanese media Mecha & Manga, there's a feat called "Distracting Looks" that allows your character to provoke this reaction to reduce targets' effectiveness with social skills.
- In Pathfinder, the empyreal lord Arshea uses their Charisma modifier as their armor. They offer this to their followers who perform obedience. The ability requires the user to wear revealing clothing and no armor.
- Reign has the "Beauty" advantage, which is prime for this use. At lower ranks you merely turn heads, while at the highest rank comparisons are made to Helen of Troy. And that's before you intentionally use it to jack your Fascinate skill through the roof.
- Shadowrun: the 4th Edition supplement Attitude notes that female Urban Brawl champion Svetlana Jurjewa is known for her tactic of opening her top and flashing her breasts at members of the other team in order to distract them while one of her teammates makes a play. It's technically against the rules but so popular with viewers that she (and other female players who started copying her) are allowed to do it anyway.
- A Touch of Evil: The Succubus minion gets an extra Fight Die against male Heroes.
- The "Sexualized" merit in Vampire: The Requiem lets characters use this to their advantage, at the cost of dealing with the fallout from the occasional Stupid Sexy Flanders moments they inflict on people around them.
- The Dark Elf Sorceress Morathi in Warhammer Fantasy is so beautiful and seductive that entire units must make a morale check to avoid distracted by her mere presence in combats she is involved in.
Theatre
- In The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Chip Tolentino washes out of the eponymous bee when he notices Leaf Coneybear's buxom older sister Marigold in the audience just as he is given the word "tittup." Predictably, he spells it with only one "t" and is disqualified.
- As the Man in Chair tells us, the actress in the 1920s musical The Drowsy Chaperone was famous for playing "The Oops Girl", who had this as her entire shtick.
- Legally Blonde:
- The whole point of the "bend and snap." Elle and the Greek Chorus are impressed by Paulette's naturally excellent "bend and snap," and teach her how to use it to get Kyle's attention. Elle weaponizes it later, when she realizes the witness might be gay, which would make his story about having an affair with Brooke perjury. First, she tries it on said witness, and he doesn't bat an eyelid. Then, she tries it in the courtroom—and the head of every other guy (and Enid) all whip around to look.
- During "Whipped Into Shape," Enid gets distracted by Brooke's DVD. Understandable, since she's in a sports bra and workout clothes and is doing a vigorous, bouncy dance routine.
- It's a little subtle and often missed by viewers the first time around, but this is part of Emmett's strategy during his questioning of Nikos, at least in the Broadway version. He lifts his jacket higher and puts a little saunter into his step as he walks past...and Nikos's gaze goes down to his butt. It distracts him enough that he honestly answers the question about his boyfriend's name without realizing it.
Visual Novels
- Magical Warrior Diamond Heart: Val is constantly finding herself losing her train of thought because she got distracted by how good-looking one of her love interests is. She says outright in the very first episode that it's a problem that might come to bite her in the butt.
- Melody (2019):
- Downplayed on Becca's romantic path when the protagonist is fixing her sink and gets a view of her panties. He gets distracted from what he's doing, but there are no bad consequences. Becca isn't even that upset if he looks long enough that she catches him.
- Discussed by Melody. According to her, when she and Steve were together, Steve would check out other girls while on dates with her.
Web Animation
- Anon: Sam and Roxy are so distracted by Tucker and Kyle during their kidnapping attempt that they leave their gun unattended, leaving Chelsea and Hunter to figure out exactly what to do next.
- Gwain Saga: During a bar fight with a bunch of thugs, Luna uses a holographic projection of Gwain in a Bunnysuit to distract them before she promptly punishes them for letting their guards down.
- Played with in "A Walk in the Park", an Amiga-made animation by Eric Schwartz. His half-dressed squirrel girl, Amy (of Sabrina Online fame), walks to work through the local park, causing numerous examples. Amy is revealed to be a nurse and the short ends with her looking out over the waiting room filled with her unintended victims and asking why her shift is always the busiest.
- In the first episode of Tobuscus Animated Adventures, Toby is so busy ogling a chick that he fails to notice (or care) that she's a zombie. Hilarity Ensues.
Webcomics
- And Shine Heaven Now: When Integra and Timothy decide to team up, their respective bad angels try to talk them out of it on the grounds of it being hopeless and Catholics and Protestants being unable to work together...and promptly get distracted by Timothy awakening the Power of Dios, causing the two of them to end up naked.
- Invoked by Bailey in one page of Avialae, when he exercises while shirtless in front of his boyfriend Gannet.
Gannet: Will you please do that somewhere else? You're very distracting.Bailey (smugly): Am I?Gannet: Immensely. I'm trying to read these deeply boring books.Bailey (moves to kiss Gannet): Maybe I'm trying to distract you.
- Blades of Furry: Emile zones out when Radu opens the door to him shirtless and eating ice cream on chapter 19 even though he has important matters to discuss with him.
- In Commander Kitty, CK is frequently susceptible to this. Considering how both Zenith and the Alpha Droids turn out to be androids, perhaps he's a closeted Robosexual?
- In Evon, Herodotus uses this trope to his advantage after he and Evon lose their clothes to a misfired teleport spell. First he negotiates a good sale price on their bird mounts by distracting the stable keeper with Evon's naked body (against her will), then uses his own naked body on a tailor to get a good deal on some new clothes. (Note that this all happens in Chapter 3.5, a Fanservice-oriented bonus chapter.)
- The Fourth: Lord Skärva, having become a bit more Genre Savvy, turns this into an evil plot, preparing to have Princess Veronika fall in love with the hero, Blank. The idea is, once Blank's love for the princess is requited, he'll be too busy to defeat Skärva.
- Girl Genius
- Higgs and Zeetha have a mutual Distracted by the Sexy moment whilst caught up in the middle of a stampede escaping from Mechanicsburg, which leads to them making out (and likely more, but we'll never know) inside a giant clank. The distraction ends up being beneficial, though, because it's the only reason that they're not in the town when the timestop occurs.
- Utterly averted by Agatha, though - her two rival suitors are both in the same room as her, one shirtless and one completely naked, and she never even acknowledges it. Justified in that she's a Mad Scientist trying to work out a way to save both of their lives, and getting distracted would mean they would both wind up dead in a matter of hours.
- Agatha tries to distract people with the sexy when she's on the train, figuring that if an assassin broke into her compartment and found a young lady covered only by a Modesty Towel, he'd pause for long enough her friends to kill them. This is her idea of "a normal-person plan". It ends up working exactly once - everyone else that bursts into her compartment is a friend, or at least an ally.
- After Gil's crew pulls Othar out of the time stop more and more Wulfenbach personnel stop what they're doing to ogle Othar while he talks shirtless with Gil until Gil shoves a sweater at him to his crew's disappointment.
- While Agatha is in Paris she's being followed by one of Martellus' Smoke Knights. Seffie sends one of her own Smoke Knights to "get in the man's way a bit," which involves a fair amount of kissing.
- When exploring an ancient library, Neena and Zeetha manage to unerringly find the Romance Novel section and prove... very difficult to winkle out of it.
- Higgs and Zeetha have a mutual Distracted by the Sexy moment whilst caught up in the middle of a stampede escaping from Mechanicsburg,
- El Goonish Shive
- Grace asks Susan if it would reflect badly on women if she intentionally invoked this trope by subtly increasing her bust size using her morphing abilities in order to gain an edge in a debate.
- After Elliot assumes a busty female form at the mall, a number of characters (of both sexes) are shown in the background blatantly staring. One man carrying boxes even trips and falls.
- Grace asks Susan
- Homestuck has a fairly mild example in the first meeting between John and Roxy. Roxy asks him to tell her about his adventures so far (i.e., practically the whole comic) but winds up listening to none of it because she's too busy evaluating him as boyfriend material (and liking what she sees).
- From the Irregular Webcomic! annotations:
I did half a year of French at high school. I don't think I absorbed much beyond "Je m'appelle David." You'd think I would have paid more attention to the luscious young Miss P. who was our teacher... or maybe that was my problem.
- In Chapter 1 of Jenny Everywhere In…, fittingly entitled I Shifted Into a Universe of Horny Furries But Didn't Get Laid But Made Some New Friends, Jenny initially finds it very hard to focus on The Quest when she first arrives in Universe FR-419, where all women are curvy, all men are hunks, and everyone Really Gets Around — but she eventually gets over it and befriends multiple denizens platonically.
- In League of Super Redundant Heroes, one of the characters has the super power of distracting. Oh, and don't ask for her suit.
- In The Less Than Epic Adventures of TJ and Amal, TJ can drink soda or watch the very well-built Amal strip down for a shower, but not both at once.
- The Mafia Nanny: Davina is taken aback to come downstairs and learn that it's pool day — ie her very well sculpted employer is lying by the pool in a Speedo while Mikey splashes around, causing her to freeze up in the middle of a sentence. Since she has already entered the room, pool day rules are that she can't leave, so she has to go change into a swimsuit herself, and her graceful dive grabs Gabriel's attention in turn.
Davina: (holding up Mikey's dive ring) One to me.
Mikey: Papa, did you see that!?
Gabriel: Mmhm. - Magick Chicks/Eerie Cuties uses it as a Running Gag with Tiffany:
- She got distracted by Faith, when she mind-sexts her, during her latest attempt to stake Layla... while sleeping with yet another girl!
- She inadvertently returns the favor when her unexpected appearance causes Faith to seemingly forget that she and the rest of the student council may have walked into a trap! Instead, she starts turning on the charm.
- There was also the time that Layla invited her to double up with her on a blind date with her ex-fiance Dio. Tiffany hesitates, until Layla flashes a photo of him. So much for staking vampires.
- And it happens to her kid brother, Dusky, during the "Siren Brawl" bonus story. They were supposed to be keeping an eye out for monsters, but he had his eye on Tracy Milligan's ass, causing Tiff to Dope Slap him!
- She got distracted by Faith, when she mind-sexts her, during her latest attempt to stake Layla... while sleeping with yet another girl!
- Ménage à 3:
- DiDi can cause this practically any time she leaves the house; an early example came when she stripped to a tiny bikini in a park, causing multiple collisions.
- While on a mad dash to stop DiDi from copulating with Gary, Zii gets distracted by two cute gay guys kissing right after asserting that nothing could distract her.
- DiDi can cause this practically any time she leaves the house; an early example came when she stripped to a tiny bikini in a park, causing multiple collisions.
- This exchange from Narbonic, where Mel tells her boyfriend Caliban that she has to go on a black-ops mission:
Caliban: "We'd better have sex tonight."
Mel: "Because I might die and we'll never see each other again?"
Caliban: "You what? Sorry, I wasn't listening." - In The Order of the Stick it's usually the first idea of Elan when it comes to using illusions. It usually doesn't work.
- Umar in Pixie Trix Comix seems to be incapable of being in the same room as Sharon without getting completely distracted. Ramona, who’s employing both of them, decides that he’d better work from home.
- In Rascals, this happens throughout the entire series.
- Kat Smith in Rival Angels is forcing the referee to be distracted by her sexy in this strip.
- Sequential Art: Kat trying on a borrowed swimsuit that's way too big for her, to the point of threatening to fall off if she weren't holding onto the garment, distracts Art from thinking about how to escape a Reality Show also serving as a prison for those threatening to reveal a covert Alien Invasion.
- Silent Hill: Promise: The gag ending where Vanessa promptly forgets all about her search and jumps Borje, leading to a long, satisfying relationship with him.
- Sluggy Freelance
- Oasis has used this to her advantage more than once in her pursuit of Torg. When getting ready to fight Oasis, one of Riff's preparations is a "censorizing black bar" launcher, designed to cover up any "distracting nudity".
- The first time Torg and Bun Bun meet Oasis. They are in the middle of a fight in a lake. Second Frame, both stare as Oasis swims by nude. "Game called on account of naked chick."
- Way back around strip #27 or so when Zoe was introduced, Zoe locked her keys in the car with it running, but Torg and Riff are distracted by a hot chick who asks them to help her find her lost makeup case.
- Torg has trouble telling the boobs — er, story — because Sasha just took off her shirt.
- Oasis has used this to her advantage more than once in her pursuit of Torg. When getting ready to fight Oasis
- Something*Positive: Nancy's first appearance in the strip is as arm candy for Davan thanks to a plan cooked up by Aubrey and Jason to make his high-school classmates feel... inadequate. And boy does she ever.
- Supermegatopia: Distraction Damsel's superpower gives her the ability to have a well-time Wardrobe Malfunction that stops villains (and everyoone else) their tracks. It works surprisingly well.
- Survivor: Fan Characters
- This is Minerva Mink's strategy — her entire alliance was based around guys who found her hot, most notably P. Bear, who liked her only because she was hot.
- Montana also pulls this off on every guy in her tribe after Issac is voted out — she goes topless for a day to celebrate, and it allows her to speak better with the guys who are normally very hush-hush (it even cures Alex's stutter).
- Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff: "it was at that point when i got distracted by his moms HOT ASS..." [sic]
- Toonhole: In "Lifeguard on Duty", a lifeguard ogles a woman sunbathing on the beach as a man gets attacked by two sharks right in front of him.
- In Unit-M, Shield's physique and form-fitting outfits regularly command the attention of other characters. Not so much her teammates, though.
- In Wapsi Square, Monica can cause this from time to time. And again with some help from Shelly.
- A hilarious example occurs in the "Growing Pains in the Neck" roleplay of White Dark Life. Maxmillian Schneider, who, due to a... strange childhood, has no understanding of his libido, nonetheless gets distracted enough to walk into a pole upon noticing Esther Mokary's recent growth spurt.
Web Original
- This April Fools article from Jalopnik calls for the banning of "road head" while driving since it supposedly distracts other people on the road from driving and is thus a road safety hazard.
- The photo for the Distracted Boyfriend Meme features a guy who is distracted by a woman in the foreground. His girlfriend notices and is not very happy.
- The Iced Latte with Breast Milk meme involves someone ordering a drink from a buxom, often underclad barista, only to make numerous abortive attempts to say something other than "breast milk".
Websites
- Men make more short-term-oriented decisions after exposure to sexual stimuli, as explained in #3 of Cracked's 5 Unrealistic Movie Cliches That Are Scientifically Accurate.
- At one point, the female biz-bot of the Jolly Roger Telephone Company, designed to distract cold-callers, will claim to have been distracted and missed what the caller said because a really hot co-worker just walked by. "Oooh, baby!"
- On Tumblr, Radioactivesupersonic posted an essay deconstructing the use of this trope to justify showing Action Girl characters in skimpy outfits. Their main point is that seduction is not a valid strategy in a combat situation, and is based on the assumption that the people she is fighting will be attracted to her and not be too savvy/sensible to fall for the trick — and if it were, why wouldn't male characters do it more often?
- Also on Tumblr, the phrase "too gay to function" has mutated into a shorthand description for same-sex examples of this trope.
- There are a lot of things that Wikipedia considers to be un-noteworthy. The Saugeen stripper is not one of those things.
Web Videos
- American High Digital: The teacher in "Career Day" is far more interested in the exotic dancer than the astronaut and president.
- The Angry Video Game Nerd accuses the developers of Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness of this, arguing that while the game is glitchy and unfinished it has refined Jiggle Physics:
Nerd: The creators spent so much time figuring out how to make Lara's boobs jiggle, they forgot to make her fun to play!
- Carmilla: There is a running gag of Laura being very obviously distracted by Carmilla. In Season 1, Carmilla gets changed right in front of Laura and her friends. In Season 2, just after she and Laura break up, Carmilla annoys Laura by not only deliberately gets changed in front of her again, but she also LEANS OVER next to her, giving Laura (and the audience) a very good view of what Laura is missing. However, Laura unknowingly gets her own back in Season 3, as Carmilla accidentally drops and steps on an important pair of glasses while staring at Laura performing yoga.
- Critical Role: During the final fight against Lucien, Yasha is charmed by him and attacks her girlfriend Beau. She misses with a double natural 1, and Marisha (who plays Beau) immediately canonizes that Beau saw Yasha coming and, in a panic, flashed her, distracting her so much it caused her attacks to miss.
Veth: I'm so confused! Beau's showing her tits and getting kisses in the middle of the fight?!
- DashieXP's playthrough of Bayonetta 2 is rife with this, even hindering his performance (though, to be fair, it was his first time).
DashieXP: [after Glamour emerges from the ground] Okay, we fighting some shit! We fighting some shit— [notices Bayonetta's ass] Damn, look at all that CAKE!
- In the 50th Anniversary Doctor Who panel video, Peter Davison begins talking about the legendarily Narm-inducing decision for Peri to be leaning over his Doctor's face in a super-low-cut top during his regeneration scene, itself an example of this trope. Only as he carries on talking about it, the other old Doctors become noticeably distracted by the large-breasted sign-language interpreter on stage right as she mimes the sign for "cleavage", dropping their sentences and losing focus. Except for Tom Baker, who acts completely oblivious, and doesn't turn around to look even after Peter Davison points her out to him and starts miming the sign himself to indicate what he's missing. And then double subverts it by suddenly turning around and delivering a very flirty "hello".
- This episode of Game Theory argues the biological advantage in the Dead or Alive franchise's skimpy costumes, and their capacity to create imbalance in tournament play.
- In Episode 5 of Korra Bridged, upon discovering that Hiroshi Sato is working with Amon, Korra quickly tries to warn her friends... only to go completely brain-dead the moment she sees Asami in her swimsuit.
- Mahu: In "Frozen Flame", a group of dryads tries to distract and even stop the forces of prince Arius by using their unnatural beauty... then a volley of rocks from the prince's trebuchets pulverizes half of these creatures, immediately breaking the spell.
- Matt Santoro did a Q&A video, and someone asked him who he thought the hottest female was. He said Kate Upton, and to prove it, he played a clip of Kate Upton dancing in lingerie, which he stared at for a few seconds before regaining focus.
- The Nostalgia Chick:
- When it comes to David Bowie's PACKAGE, The Chick just can't help going off-track.
- In the middle of her Matilda review, while Nella tries to convince The Nostalgia Chick and Mara Wilson to join forces instead of fighting each other, she gets distracted by Mara's breasts and tries to touch them.
- During The Nostalgia Critic's review of Bebe's Kids, he rants about a useless music video included, until camera focuses on the main female's butt which results in a quick "Dayum" before he returns to ranting on how useless the music video is.
- Tobuscus has a catchphrase devoted to this phenomenon, "Hothothothothothot," which also falls under the category of Gibberish of Love, and appears to be endearing to many of the women he meets.
- In the Wiiviewer's review of Dragon's Lair Trilogy, he gets so caught up in seeing Princess Daphne on the screen that he forgets what he's talking about.
- Young Justice Abridged:
- Let's just say Wally isn't as good at hiding his attraction to Artemis here as he is in the show and just leave it at that.
- Apparently, it's a trait shared by the other red-head; Roy gets played hard by Cheshire when she turns on the smoulder, and even funnier, he seems aware of the trope and tries to warn himself about it, but still falls for her distraction.
