Beverage Spill

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Every so often, a character gets thirsty that they decide to get a drink. Sometimes, it can be any kind of beverage, whether it's water, juice, pop, tea, hot chocolate, or coffee. Then, just as the character is about to enjoy his drink, he suddenly spills it by accident. You've just spilled a drink on yourself. Oftentimes, this trope comes in two different flavors:

  1. A character wants a cup of coffee so he asks a friend to pour some coffee into his cup. The coffee is then poured, but instead of going into the cup, it splashes right into the person's lap, resulting in some pretty nasty pain.
  2. One character at a party is having a glass of juice or tea, when someone either trips him up or pushes him, causing him to spill the drink that he is having all over himself.

This trope is when a character gets any kind of beverage spilled on him by another character. It may or may not be on accident, but expect the spilled character to experience distress from it.

Compare: Groin Attack


Examples of Beverage Spill include:


Examples of the first form

Film

  • The Parent Trap: In the opening credits for the 1961 version, the dad winds up getting coffee poured into his lap.
  • In the film, Kevin Of The North, the titular character gives one of the bad guys what he calls a "Canoga Park Coffee Zap".
  • In an old Laurel and Hardy gag, Hardy holds a cup of hot coffee when Laurel asks him the time. While checking his watch, Hardy pours his coffee on himself. Hardy tries to pull this on Laurel, but Laurel wears his watch on the inside of his wrist and turns his wrist outward to check it, pouring his coffee on Hardy, leaving Hardy steaming mad and Laurel surprised at his suddenly empty cup.

Live-Action TV

Examples of the second form

Anime and Manga

Film

  • Sky High: All-American Boy gets a cup of juice spilled on him by Lash at the prom.
  • School for Scoundrels has something that's a combination of both. One of the seduction techniques taught by the Sensei for Scoundrels involves making the outside of a glass slippery so that the woman will spill it on herself and have to take off her dress.
  • Mystery Team: The spilling of Chocolate Milk manages to lead to a Dramatic Reveal. A very, very rare case of this trope being played for drama.

Live-Action TV

  • House of Lies: In episode 2 of season 1, Doug Guggenheim spills coffee on his own lap while trying to impress a sexy celebrity. This leads to an unfortunate Jizzed in My Pants moment.

Real Life

  • There is a prank item called a Dribble Glass, with holes near the top of the glass. Just pour in some water, offer it to a friend, and when he drinks, voila! The water leaks out through the holes.