Distracted by the Sexy



"Jessica: You have no idea how hard it is, being a woman looking the way I do. Eddie: Yeah, well... You have no idea how hard it is, being a man looking at a woman looking the way you do."

- Who Framed Roger Rabbit

For some men, it's very easy to forget what they are doing when a gorgeous woman strolls past and lose control, doing things like walking into walls, tripping over themselves, dropping fragile objects, etc. Mostly a comedy trope.

If this induced intentionally by the woman in question when We Need a Distraction, it falls instead into Show Some Leg.

Compare Show Some Leg, Sex Sells, Sexy Coat Flashing. Contrast, naturally, Not Distracted by the Sexy and Ignore the Fanservice. If the viewers are the ones Distracted by the Sexy, that's Best Known for the Fanservice. If communication is attempted, it can cause Gibberish of Love. If a character distracts themselves by noticing their reflection in a mirror, that's Distracted by My Own Sexy. See Cuteness Proximity for the non-sexy, non-human variant. Compare also with Screw the Rules, I'm Beautiful.

Advertising

 * 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.
 * 2010 Super Bowl ad with Megan Fox.

Anime and Manga

 * Cutey Honey: Honey Kisaragi used this as one of her weapons. Although sometimes her transforming device worked wrong and she did it accidentally.
 * In Maison Ikkoku, Yusaku Godai often gets distracted fantasizing about Kyoko, causing him to fall down/run into things/kiss inanimate objects.
 * Mazinger Z: It happened fairly often in the manga. Usually was Sayaka the one did the -unwilling- distraction -either because her clothes were torn or because she was involuntarily naked-, but sometimes it was done by enemies to distract Kouji. The Gamia sisters come to mind...
 * One of those scenes was animated in Mazinkaiser. In the Beach Episode, Kouji accidentally undoes Sayaka's top; she's actually more upset by Boss getting a look at her breasts than she is by Kouji, even though he weaponizes her boobs in order to escape the enemy fortress.
 * Great Mazinger: Just how many times Boss ran into an obstacle because he saw Jun walking by and he stopped looking forward while he walked?
 * Happens a lot to Maeda in Ai Kora, who has a tendency to go nuts for any woman who has at least one of what he considers "ideal parts". So far the only girls in his "harem" to consciously manipulate this fact are Ayame and Yukari.
 * Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei has a segment on this (or rather, getting distracted in general, and forgetting the point of what you're watching) that involves an invading alien leader getting completely sidetracked from his invasion by gratuitous fanservice... which the viewer is also shown, and which generally does succeed in distracting the viewer from the actual plot until the next obvious reminder. Other non-sexy distractions include showing the credits onscreen at moderately high speed without stopping the action or dialogue in any way. It works, too.
 * Pokémon: Brock, every time a Nurse Joy or Officer Jenny shows up. Heck, every time a pretty girl shows up.
 * Fairy Tail: This happens to Juvia in a side chapter where she's supposed to be using her magic as a water slide attraction for Lucy, who ends up tumbling ungracefully into the water when Juvia sees Gray's "glorious body".
 * In Change 123, this trope is played (at least) twice:
 * Ozuma, during the judo match with Mikiri, suddenly sees that under her judo-gi Mikiri has nothing but some skimpy underwear. She quickly manages to score a small point because of his distraction.
 * On the sports festival at school, during the "battle on horses", Hibiki and Ginga jump towards Izuru to take away her headband. Izuru manages to evade Hibiki's hand, and so instead of the headband, Hibiki tears away Izuru's clothes. This results in Hibiki's and Ginga's "horses" to be distracted by Izuru's breasts, and so unable to catch their "riders".
 * In Star Driver, this happens to Okamoto during her fight with Takuto. Much to the disbelief of the observers. And her opponent.
 * Mayumi-chan from Kuuchuu Buranko is there for that very reason.
 * In one episode of Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt, Panty and Stocking go job hunting. One part of the job montage features them directing traffic, but their tight cop outfits cause more accidents than the girls prevent.
 * In After School Sex Slave Club one of the cheerleaders/sex slaves is told not to wear any underwear during a baseball match. The opposing team lost by paying too much attention to her.
 * In a similar but less naughty variation of the above, Urd turns the tide of a softball match by showing up in a uniform two sizes too small without a bra, destroying the focus of the all-male team she and the rest of the cast were playing against.
 * This is why Plica doesn't remember much of her piano lessons.
 * In Busou Renkin, when Tokiko is forced to wear a two-piece bathing suit, she spends the whole long beach scene chewing out other people whom she accuses of staring at her bellybutton. She even yells at the readers.
 * In the Love Hina manga, when Kitsune, Motoko, and Mutsumi are trying to get a ride to the airport, Kitsune lifts up Motoko's shirt to entice travellers... and promptly causes a 20-car pileup.
 * One of the dirty tricks Ciel from Black Butler uses to win a cricket match involves getting scandalously dressed women disrupt the opposing team's concentration. It's Victorian Britain, so the effect is particularly strong.
 * In One Piece, this is a common problem for any male who opposes or aids Nami, Robin, or Boa. For example, in this clip, Bartolomeo is distracted in the middle of a battle when Robin simply winks at him. Sanji tends to get hit with it any time he sees an attractive woman.

Comic Books
"Aunt May: Would you mind passing the butter, Peter? Peter: No--not at all! Aunt May: Then why don't you pass it, dear? Peter: Pass what?"
 * In Asterix the Legionary, Obélix is distracted by the lovely Panacea walking by, and walks into a tree... knocking it over.
 * Seen every so often in Gold Digger with characters of either gender. Gina Diggers herself isn't above being distracted by a nice piece of beefcake, for example.
 * Archie Comics
 * Archie would occasionally have this problem. Once he somehow managed to trip over a floor buffer in a hallway that had been two frames earlier completely clear.
 * Another notable example is Veronica deliberately pulling this trope on the boys in gym class, much to Coach Kleats' annoyance. Archie gets back at her by strolling through the girls' gym class in the same way.
 * Melody from Josie and the Pussy Cats is the poster girl for this trope.
 * She nearly got lynched by a town full of angry teenage girls whose boyfriends got distracted by her. And she only escaped because Alan M is pretty much her male counterpart.
 * She is also a Dumb Blonde. One time they put her in a heavy fur coat, and the guys are still going crazy, which prompts Josie to say, "I dunno. Maybe they have good memories?" And she ignores it.
 * In another, Melody chases off some boys to get "peace and quiet," while Josie and Valerie get depressed.
 * Peter Parker when he first meets Mary Jane at a dinner (Amazing Spider-Man #43):

"Abner: Hm. You must get that a lot. Louisa Dem Five: Abner, I cause so many moral crises that the Slag Bah consider me a religion."
 * German comic Lula und Yankee: Yankee and his buddies make a tour on a tractor through the countryside. Because this trope happens, they end up in a military area by accident. Hilarity Ensues (well, kind of).
 * When Katherine "Kate" Kane was just getting involved in crimefighting, before she first donned the Batwoman costume, she was eavesdropping on several criminals in a bar as they were discussing their upcoming operation. During the conversation one of the men questions the other, Jackson, on if he was paying attention or not. Jackson explains that he was "admiring the view" and is seen openly staring at Kate, then turns to the other man and dares him to say he was not having the exact same thoughts.
 * Buck Godot: Zap Gun for Hire. K-BONK! (NSFW)

Fan Works

 * Nobody Dies: When Asuka first gets into her plugsuit as Unit-02's new pilot (it's a long story), Shinji walks by one the way to a test. Once he gets a good look, a wall decides to say hi. Combining this with the multiple situations of Did I Just Say That Out Loud?, it's a wonder that Asuka hasn't gotten over her socialization issues.
 * A male example occurs in Kyon: Big Damn Hero, with Kyon somehow stopping a fight between people he didn't even know were there by... getting out of the bath.
 * After some coaching by Hild, Ranma Saotome comes to enjoy deliberately doing this to men with his female form in Hell Is a Martial Artist by Ozzallos, even competing with her over how much damage they can cause simply by walking down the street.

Films -- Animation
""Ah, m'lady, your grace is matched only by your boobies, I mean beauty.""
 * Atlantis: The Lost Empire: "You do swim, do you not?", "Oh, I swim pretty girl-- pr-pretty good! Good, I swim pretty good."
 * Spirit from Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron gets distracted by Rain, leading to his second capture.
 * This obviously happens to Bugs Bunny in Lola Bunny's introductory appearance in Space Jam when she enters the gym to try out for the team.
 * At the end of Katy Caterpillar, 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.
 * In An American Tail, Tony gets a little... um... distracted by Bridget.
 * The English suitor in A Gentleman's Duel.

Films -- Live-Action

 * In the sequel to National Treasure, Riley Poole is holding a bag full of indiscriminate (but obviously breakable) objects when a pretty girl walks by and asks for his autograph. He's so excited that he's finally recognized as himself (rather than as The Lancer to Ben), not to mention that a girl is actually paying attention to him, that he drops the bag immediately.
 * Neo fails a test by getting distracted by "the woman in the red dress" in The Matrix.
 * Spoofed in Cycon's short in The Matrix Still Has You, when Neo is distracted by the woman, but a second glance takes too long because the Matrix operates on a 56k modem.
 * The slapstick opening credits to Superman III were sparked off by someone ogling a super-hottie. And Disaster Dominoes, down they go.
 * Memoirs of a Geisha has a scene with the Mameha (Michelle Yeoh) teaching the protagonist, Sayuri (Zhang Zhiyi) that a true geisha can stop a man with her eyes. She demonstrates and then asks Sayuri to do so, which Sayuri does to a passer by riding a bicycle, causing him to crash.
 * The Naked Gun: In the second film, Frank fights an assassin who has come to kill Jane (who is in the shower). She hears the ruckus and pulls open the shower curtain to see what's up, whereupon both Frank and the Assassin stop in mid-grapple to stare.
 * Jayne Mansfield's character causes several accidents in a row in The Girl Can't Help It.
 * In Desperado, Salma Hayek's character, Carolina, is introduced by having her cause an accident at an intersection while crossing the street. She just smiles and keeps on walking.
 * A trailer for So Fine, a movie about someone who invented bottomless jeans, solely featured the various accidents befalling men who saw a woman walking down the street in them.
 * Happens briefly in It's a Wonderful Life. At one point, a nameless background male character turns his head to watch Violet walk and nearly gets hit by a car as a result.
 * In A Fish Called Wanda, barrister Archie Leach is so smitten by Wanda that he leaves his briefcase on top of his car as he drives off.
 * 10: Dudley Moore is so distracted when a car bearing Bo Derek drives by that he drives right into another car. A police car.
 * Even suave superspies aren't immune to it. In the Get Smart movie, Dwayne Johnson's Agent 23 is a paragon of what an agent should be. Yet he walks straight into a support pole when the sexy secretary smiles at him.
 * The old Cheech Marin film Born in East L.A. had a couple of gags where an especially attractive Latino woman (who was one of Cheech's garage customers in the movie) would literally make everyone else stop in their tracks and stare whenever she walked past.
 * In The Sweetest Thing, Cameron Diaz looking for a lipstick in a moving car causes a biker to crash.
 * Parodied in Undercover Brother. Undercover Brother is fighting with two mooks while White She-Devil and Sistah Girl are duking it out. When the cat fight turns into clothes-tearing and ends up in the shower, not only do the three men stop fighting, they set up seats and popcorn.
 * This happens a lot around Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, particularly in her movies. Men will often forget what they are doing just to get a look at Elvira and her... uh... assets. Some have even died while distracted by her sexiness.
 * The Police Academy gym is a dangerous place to be while Callahan is working out.
 * Back to The Future Part 1, when Marty McFly gets distracted by sexy women... while his girlfriend is right next to him.
 * Really happened while filming Captain America: The First Avenger. The directors decided to Throw It In.
 * Occurs during Bad Teacher when Elizabeth is seductively dousing herself in water and rubbing herself across a car when trying to raise money.
 * Happens at the beginning of Hot Shots Part Deux where an attractive woman arrives to a Buddhist monastery where Topper Harley is hiding in order to recruit him for a rescue mission. A monk falls into a well while walking and staring at her. Later on, all monks line to up to show off their manliness.
 * A secretary (identified as such in the credits, the only female cast member listed) walking through the warehouse in Forklift Driver Klaus distracts the male workers enough to set off the final series of accidents.
 * In the opening sequence of The Longest Day, a pair of French resistance fighters are smuggled past a German checkpoint hidden in a haycart, with a gorgeous woman wearing a skimpy peasant outfit making sure the guards don't pay too much attention to it.

Literature
"A slow voice, like a tawny port, breathed, "Who is That?" into my left ear. "He's Pretty!" Sativa always talked like that."
 * Recognized and used in The Annals of the Chosen by Lawrence Watt-Evans—one of the eight Chosen Ones is the Beauty, whose primary abilities are this and the Honey Trap.
 * In John C. Wright's Chronicles of Chaos, this happens fairly often, sometimes to Victor, usually to Colin.
 * In Xanth, a woman showing her panties causes any observing man to space out. This is an actual magical phenomenon in that world. Only partial nudity has this effect: nymphs, centaurs, and other human or demi-human creatures who routinely go naked do not cause this. Its mentioned in the books that this is, at least in part, because such creatures consider nudity to be "a part of nature", and no different from ordinary animals not wearing clothing. Humans, on the other hand, always try to cover themselves up, and that modesty is the reason for the magic.
 * Dave Barry explores this phenomenon in Dave Barry's Complete Guide to Guys. He refers to it as "Lust-Induced Brain Freeze," or LIBF for short.
 * Arthur C. Clarke's Rendezvous With Rama contains a passage detailing a space captain's frustration with the distractions of Jiggle Physics in zero-G, concluding that he's "quite sure that at least one serious space accident had been caused by acute crew distraction, after the transit of an unholstered lady officer through the control cabin." One woman, upon reading this, wrote that she agreed that such distractions would make male astronauts unable to do their jobs, and thus the space program, as a precaution, would have to exclude men.
 * Non-human variation in A Game of Thrones: Ser Loras Tyrell knowingly rides a mare in heat in the tourney, causing the stallion of his opponent, Ser Gregor Clegane, to be skittish and difficult to control. Also shown in the TV series.
 * Any male in The Pale King who is in the vicinity of Meredith Rand, with the exception of Shane Drinion.
 * Margo Smith of Time Scout can cause minor traffic jams with her skirts. Malcolm Moore has a lot of trouble focusing around her. Well, focusing on anything but her.
 * A gender-flipped version can be found in the 1967 "psychedelic SF" novel The Butterfly Kid. Sativa, titular leader of "Sativa and the Trip-outs", doesn't walk into walls upon meeting Country Mouse Sean, but whenever he's around she seems to have great difficulty paying attention to anything else.

Live-Action TV
"Clarkson: Sunny skies, light breezes, girls wearing short skirts."
 * Bonanza: The 1960 episode "The Ape," where Hoss' friend, a simple-minded giant of a man named Arnie (whom Hoss is trying to mentor and help become a farmer), is forever distracted by a sexy saloon girl named Shari. Despite Hoss warning Arnie many times that Shari wants nothing to do with him except take advantage of him, and that her friends are snakes in the grass, Arnie constantly goes to the saloon to be with her and make her his bird in his cage. (The episode ends tragically. When Arnie learns that Shari is exactly as Hoss said, he kills her, after which he is shot by a posse.)
 * Seinfeld
 * There was a plot that spanned several episodes where a woman who wore a bra as a top indirectly caused a car wreck.
 * In another episode, Elaine wears a low-cut top and unknowingly distracts numerous men.
 * Very early in the first episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Xander first sees Buffy and promptly does this, skateboarding into the railing for the stairs up to the front of the high school.
 * In Married... with Children, we learn that Steve once ran a marathon without meaning to because he was following a girl in short running shorts.
 * Jeff from Coupling does this.
 * In Waking the Dead a group of Private Military Contractors is discussing VIP protection when Stella Goodman walks into the room. As one of them is distracted by her (she is a Fair Cop), the guy leading the session mimes shooting him in the back of the head. Then directly comments on this sort of thing.
 * What I Like About You has an interesting twist: anytime Gary Thorpe is topless (usually as part of his job), everybody is dumbstruck... except his best friend Holly Tyler, since they're Platonic Life Partners.
 * Top Gear
 * In an episode, the cameraman is Distracted by the Sexy and drifts over to film some beach volleyball players instead of James May and the Honda FCX Clarity he is reviewing.
 * Another episode has Jeremy Clarkson explaining about the "most dangerous time of year to drive" being in the summer:

"Clarkson: Topless women! Mustn't look! Mustn't look!"
 * Invoked by Jeremy Clarkson during Hot Hatchback challenge when they raced around the Monaco GP Circuit:

"Steve Frost: (as a Violent Glaswegian soccer fan) YOU'RE GOIN' 'OME WITH A GREAT BIG STIFFIE!"
 * A serious example of this trope happens in the first episode of the Australian mini-series Janus. A woman is being hammered on the witness stand by the lawyer of her psychopathic ex-boyfriend, who's staring coldly at her the whole time. Realizing this, the policewoman guarding her sits in the front row of the public gallery, crosses her legs and makes eye contact with him. With her boyfriend's attention off her, the witness rallies under the questioning and provides the testimony they need.
 * Saturday Night Live has one in a commercial parody called "I'm No Angel" where a pregnant redneck woman (played by Amy Poehler, who really was pregnant at the time the fake commercial first aired) distracts the men in a country western bar with her pre-natal sexy.
 * Whose Line Is It Anyway?
 * One suggestion for the always funny "Scenes from a Hat" game lampshades this trope: Ryan as a lion-tamer attempts to place his head between Colin The Lion's jaws when he is Distracted by the Sexy. So is Colin's Lion.
 * Earlier in the UK version, one game of "Weird Newscasters" had Ryan doing the weather while "distracted by a couple making love in front of him".

"Reporter: For a rampaging monster she sure is gorgeous. I know that offers little consolation to the legions of Japanese people now being crushed to death by the monster, but wow, is she hot!"
 * NCIS
 * In "One Shot One Kill" a warehouse manager is distracted from DiNozzo's questioning by the sight of Kate's ass as she crawls around on the floor looking for evidence. DiNozzo is rather annoyed, presumably because lusting after Kate is his job.
 * Ziva, on the other hand, regularly distracts Tony by stretching. She even got Gibbs attention once by crawling under a desk.
 * Another notable instance was when Abby was dressed as Marilyn Monroe for Halloween, Tony and McGee never stood a chance.
 * Celebrity Poker: Jennifer Tilly is really good at poker. We suspect a lot of that is psychological.
 * Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer. Mike Hammer (Stacy Keach) sees a therapist in an effort to give up smoking. Unfortunately he's too busy checking out her ample bosom during the relaxation exercise (the fact that she's going on about "deep valleys" and "rolling hills" doesn't help). Then when answering the phone he automatically takes out a packet of cigarettes and lighter, both of which are removed from his hands by the therapist, who dryly informs Hammer that the treatment appears not to be working.
 * Lexx's Lyekka uses this to stun her victims (along with a little telepathy).

"Teddy: (furious) How could you bring home the wrong baby? P.J.: I'm sorry; I got a little distracted: Emma is really cute! Teddy: Yeah, so's our little sister."
 * In the Good Luck Charlie episode "Baby Come Back", P.J. takes his baby sister out for a stroll in the park. He runs into a post at the sight of Emma, a cute girl taking her baby brother out for a stroll. This would've been only mildly amusing if not for the following:

""See how your brand of chicken..." (woman walks by and he glances at her then back to the camera, then continues in a more subdued manner) "stacks up against mine.""
 * Robin Tunney on The Mentalist—in, of all things, the Gag Reel. Both she and the other main female cast member just stand there as the guy who plays Rigsby tries to put his shirt on over his wet, glistening muscles. "Brian said that Justin was in love with her..." (both women keep staring at him). "Brian said that Justin was in love with her and my brain is dead I'm so sorry."
 * M*A*S*H: In the episode "The Moose," Hawkeye is playing poker with a soldier who has a Korean woman as an "indentured servant," so Hawkeye tries to win her and thus liberate her. To effect this, he has an earpiece in which Radar (from a distance using a telescope) is transmitting the opponent's hand. But Radar gets distracted as a nurse wearing only a towel on her way to the nurse's showers walks by.
 * Night Court does this when Harry has to arm-wrestle a stereotypical Texas big-money type to save an orphanage. He holds his own for a bit, but starts to lose—so Christine, the "sweet innocent" type, waves to get the guy's attention and flashes her breasts at him. Everyone else is focused on the match, so nobody else sees her do this. The Texan later tells her it was Worth It.
 * Used in a short film (no memory of a title or origin, sorry) entirely shown through the scope of a Cold Sniper about to shoot someone coming out of a hotel—but who's distracted by a woman stripping down to her underwear at a window. It comes to the point that the hitman ends up too late to shoot the target, whom gets into a car, and he starts cursing loudly. Then the voyeur witnesses a man, probably a jealous boyfriend, entering the same room as the woman, slapping her and pulling a handgun... and the sniper shoots him. (Thus being an extreme form of a Wife-Basher Basher... probably because the guy wanted not "only" to beat her.)
 * A few TV bloopers involving this trope:
 * Life's Most Embarrassing Moments showed one blooper where a TV reporter was doing a report at a beach when he got distracted by a bikini clad girl who walked by, resulting in garbled lines and the cameraman focusing on the said girl.
 * TV's Funniest Commercial Goofs had one commercial outtake where a guy advertising a brand of chicken got interrupted when a very busty woman passed right next to him. His line went like:

"Doctor: Rory? Did you drop the couplings? Rory: Sorry. Doctor: How could you do that? I told you not to drop them! I specifically mentioned, no dropping them! Amy: It was my fault. Doctor: Of course it wasn't your fault. Rory: It kinda was her fault. Doctor: How could it be your fault? Amy: Because it was my skirt, and my husband, and your glass floor."
 * Friends
 * When the boys play the girls in a Thanksgiving Day game of touch football, Phoebe distracts Chandler by lifting her shirt.
 * Earlier in the series, he accidentally sees Rachel half-naked. Later on Rachel asks him why can't he stop staring at her breasts, and it takes a few seconds for him to register the question and lift his gaze.
 * A very common gag on The Benny Hill Show.
 * In one sketch set in WWII, Benny plays a sniper tasked to shoot Hitler. However, as he's testing the sights, he spots a fraulein in skimpy dress by a window. He keeps ogling while distractedly putting together his sniper riffle, which ends up in a twisted, useless shape.
 * 30 Rock
 * This scene.
 * See also "The One with the Cast of Night Court".
 * One suspect on Monk was a woman who had been blinded by an accident years earlier. Monk proves that her blindness was only temporary (despite her pretending to still be blind) by convincing a male streaker to run past her. She reacts with approval and gives herself away.
 * Doctor Who
 * BBC's 2011 Comic Relief benefit featured a six-minute Doctor Who short in which the TARDIS is endangered because of this trope. Here's part 1. And Part 2.

"Rory: Have you ever seen Amy drive? Doctor: No. Rory: Neither did her driving examiner."
 * Also from the same mini-episode, Amy wore the same skirt to her driver's exam (at least according to Rory) and therefore got her license first time.

"Amy 1: Do I really look like that? Amy 2: Yeah, yeah you do. Amy 1: Mm, I'd give you driving lessons. Amy 2: Mm, I bet you would. Doctor: Oh, this is how it all ends, Pond flirting with herself -- true love at last. (remembers Rory) Oh, sorry Rory. Rory: Absolutely no problem at all."
 * Also from that mini-episode, Amy was distracted by, well, Amy, which distracted Rory again. (probably distracted us all for a moment quite honestly)

"Abed: You get any of that? Troy All I heard was suck."
 * This contestant on the Family Feud.
 * In Kath and Kim a flashback reveals how Brett fell for Kim (a question many viewers were asking). He was originally Sharon's boyfriend, but when he saw Kim he was so Distracted by the Sexy that said relationship apparently disappeared entirely, including from everyone's memory... save Sharon's.
 * Poked fun at on The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson Warning: If you are a man, you may go gay after seeing this.
 * In an episode of Community, while trying to infiltrate a law firm, Annie complains to Troy and Abed that all she’s been used for that night is bait and distraction. They’re too busy staring at her chest to catch what she says.


 * The West Wing: Josh and Amy have one of their vaguely insulting, vaguely flirtatious conversations on the way to Josh's office. Amy finishes her point and the conversation ends when they reach the office. She hands him her coat, revealing an outrageously sexy red dress underneath. Josh is stupefied for a couple seconds, then mumbles, "What?" Amy, looking quite satisfied, points out that she didn't say anything.
 * Glee: From "Hold On To Sixteen": Rachel, upon seeing Sam, as a stripper, on stage in just boxers tells Finn "Give me a dollar."
 * In one second-season episode of Gold Rush, the mechanic, James Harness is supposed to be welding a water filter system. Then his girlfriend flies up to the Klondike from the "Lower 48".
 * American Idol
 * This more or less describes Haley Scarnato's entire run.
 * And the aptly-named "Bikini Girl". They actually didn't bother calling her anything else on the show. And Kara got jealous. YA RLY.
 * On Boardwalk Empire, an authoritative "beach matron" combs the beaches of Atlantic City, fining girls 10 dollars each for wearing skirts that are too low. Showing too much leg was actually a punishable offense in 1921. Angela's new friend Louise is forced to cover up her shapely legs with a towel, causing a group of raucous boys on the beach to cry out in dismay as she does.

Music

 * "What Was I Thinkin'" by Dierks Bentley covers this trope pretty well.
 * "Baby's Got Her Blue Jeans On" by Mel Mc Daniel is a good example of this.
 * "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.

Music Videos

 * 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."
 * 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.
 * Trace Adkins' "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk" is a video about this trope in action.

Myths & Religion

 * 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.
 * Avoiding this is apparently the reasons certain sects of certain religions insist on their women dressing in a conservative manner.

New Media

 * There are a lot of things that Wikipedia considers to be un-noteworthy. The Saugeen stripper is not one of those things.

Newspaper Comics

 * In Li'l Abner, "Stupefyin' Jones" literally stunned any male who gazed upon her unless they were wearing special glasses. In the stage and movie adaptation, she was played by Julie Newmar in a skimpy skintight body suit.
 * Once happened to German detective Nick Knatterton (it was a movie poster).
 * This strip by Quino.

Recorded and Stand Up Comedy
"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.""
 * Bill Engvall discusses looking at colleges with his daughter:

Theater

 * 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.

Video Games
""... it's like she had nothing on! Mai Hem's giving orders, but I don't know where to look!""
 * Castlevania
 * Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin: Charlotte isn't, but Jonathan is susceptible to a certain female boss's attack using this trope.
 * Even better, there's also a demon that's distracted by Charlotte's sexy.
 * Castlevania: Harmony of Despair reverses this by having female characters be distracted by Dracula's sexy during his final form.
 * Played straight again, courtesy of the female Chapter 7 DLC boss Astarte.
 * In Skies of Arcadia, Vyse was having his eyes glued to the Belly Dancer, Bellena, until Aikia snapped him out of it.
 * In Knights of the Old Republic 2, there is a dancer outfit (needed for some side quest), which is absolutely useless—except for giving some bonus to the Persuade skill.
 * The characters can go to confessionals in Tales of Hearts. At one point, Hisui admits he missed a shot because he was staring at Innes' breasts.
 * In Soul Calibur 4, you win either because you played with your eyes closed or you're already living a sexually satisfied life. If you win without these two, then you're probably a genderless robot or some other video-game-playing species entirely. Or happen to be disinterested in women while playing as Ivy.
 * Or, y'know, both player characters are male. Though this trope doesn't always involve women being the distraction- Voldo is pretty damn hot.
 * In The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, when
 * The Sexy Nightwear apparel in Fallout: New Vegas gives a bonus to Charisma, which relates your Speech and Barter skills.
 * This is actually an ability of Jessica in Dragon Quest VIII. Put skill points in her Sex Appeal and monsters will start missing turns just to ogle her. Her own allies, Chivalrous Pervert Angelo included, are immune. Dragon Quest IX has a similar effect through the "Style" stat, but it affects all playable characters and isn't limited to only sexy outfits.
 * In Bayonetta, Luka wants revenge against the title (huh huh) protagonist. However, every time he meets her, he alternates between swearing revenge, and making clumsy, awkward sexual overtures. Presumably, it's kinda hard to remember what you were doing when you have... well, freaking Bayonetta standing in front of you.
 * Final Fantasy VIII: Laguna seems to fall foul of this when faced with the Cloud of Darkness in Duodecim 012, with his leg cramps acting up, and all. This is complicated by the fact that CoD is actually sexless, and initially assumed that he was frozen with fear (which it supposedly represents).
 * Final Fantasy IX: Zidane's head will move toward any attractive female NPC walking past him in a town.
 * Star FOX. Fox McCloud's first meeting face-to-face with Krystal sends him into a shock for a minute before Peppy's calling knocks him out of it.
 * Septerra Core. In the in-game mythology, Dogo the Trickster God convinces Gemma to give Kyra a mirror, so she could make herself more beautiful. Gemma does it, proving he forgot that she's his prisoner and can easily use the mirror to send messages to Marduk about her whereabouts, resulting in her rescue and Gemma's defeat. What part of the body this guy uses to thinks remains secret.
 * The Inazuma Eleven games have a pair of passive skills which invoke this, namely "Sexiness UP!" for females and "Handsomeness UP!" for males. Both decrease the success rate of nearby opposite-sex opponents' moves.
 * Mentioned by a guard in the intro to an early Perfect Dark Zero mission:


 * Even Sonic the Hedgehog gets in on this. One of the extra missions in Sonic Generations involves robots who block themselves with shields, and the only way to destroy them is to summon Rouge the Bat to distract them so that they can't block your attacks. That's right. Rouge is so sexy that not even robots are immune to her charms.
 * A case of "the best part of a bad game" in Mortal Kombat Special Forces occurs when Sonya (who is being held captive by the Black Dragons) attracts a guard to her cell, and then tells him she has to use the toilet. He points out that there's one in the cell, and she replies saying she can't use it because her hands are cuffed, and asks him to help her do so. (With a rather seductive "Please?" to boot.) Naturally the thug is too dumb to know Sonya can fight using her legs even better than she can with her fists, and too gullible to see what's coming, and it ends badly for him.

Web Animation

 * Amy the Squirrel shows how it's done Old School.
 * 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.

Web Comics
"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."
 * 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,
 * Torg has trouble telling the boobs--er, story—because Sasha just took off her shirt.
 * Silent Hill: Promise: The gag ending where Vanessa
 * Ménage à 3
 * When DiDi strips to a tiny bikini in a park, this is sure to cause lots of collisions.
 * And later, in 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.
 * Here's a good example from Joyce and Walky that nicely illustrates the newlywed variation of this trope.
 * The Cyantian Chronicles: Marcus. Repeatedly. Hilarity Ensues!
 * 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.
 * Day by Day: Hot Mom Sam pulls it off in this strip.
 * In Wapsi Square, Monica can cause this from time to time. And again with some help from Shelly.
 * Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff: "it was at that point when i got distracted by his moms HOT ASS..." ]
 * 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 an entire 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).
 * Magpie House Design: A textbook example.
 * Treading Ground: "I had... something in my eye."
 * 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.
 * Kat Smith in Rival Angels is forcing the referee to be distracted by her sexy in this strip.
 * In League Of Super Redundant Heroes, one of the characters has the super power of distracting. Oh, and don't ask for her suit.
 * From the Irregular Webcomic annotations:

Web Original

 * Fey, in the Whateley Universe. After she had a near-burnout and grew, boys were walking past her dorm room to get a look. And were walking into the wall, falling down the stairs...
 * Doctor Steel's Toy Soldiers has a Distraction Division, presumably to invoke this trope.
 * 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.
 * When it comes to David Bowie's PACKAGE, The Nostalgia Chick just can't help going off-track. And who can blame her?
 * This bash.org quote.
 * Youtube star Miss Hannah Minx, who makes videos about random things she finds or does, as well as teaches random Japanese words and their kanji. However, I'm sure people have watched all her videos and still don't know a damn word in Japanese. Here's probably the biggest example. So much so that even Michael Swaim could not resist her Fanservice! She lampshade this here.
 * 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.
 * Tobuscus has a Catch Phrase 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.
 * The "Distracted Boyfriend" meme depicts this in action, and consequently has been used since 2017 for ironic or humorous commentary on matters of divided loyalty or attention.

Western Animation
"Blue Beetle: I'm sorry! Your hotness distracted me!!"
 * Six from Tripping the Rift. Practically anything she does will make a guy's jaw hit the floor.
 * Peter Potamus in Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law almost screws up his defense of Birdman when the stenographer's blouse buttons start to pop off.
 * Total Drama Island
 * Inverted by the girls (and Owen) who go into a frozen gaze whenever Justin is in sight.
 * Played straight when Heather's top is ripped off and it distracts Harold during one of the challenges.
 * In the Disney ClassicTM Ben and Me—the story of how Benjamin Franklin owes all his inventions and wisdom to a mouse—ol' lecherous Ben is ogling a young woman when the mouse yells out "Post, Ben! Post!" leading Ben to comment "Well, how do you do, Mr. Post?" shortly before smacking face-first into said post.
 * Truth in Television; Mr. Franklin had an eye for the ladies.
 * When Paulina on Danny Phantom was first introduced, they showed all sorts guys reacting to her like this. Oddly enough, that's the only time they did.
 * The Mask has a perfect example of this (though it can also count as Show Some Leg, depending on how you look at it) in the episode "Flight as a Feather". After stripping two suicide belts off an exotic dancer named Cookie BaBoom (who crashed a ceremony held by the Mayor), The Mask sees Kellaway and Doyle coming to get him. The Mask then gets behind Cookie (who has been trapped in her own whirling dervish) and stops her so that way the front part of her naked body faces Kellaway and Doyle. The Mask escapes, Kellaway and Doyle melt like a Hershey's kiss on a hot skillet, and the Mayor smiles as he basks in the glow of his ex-girlfriend's humiliation. And this was all on a CHILDREN'S show (albeit one from the 1990s, when this kind of shock humor was in vogue).
 * Happens during Blackarachnia's first appearance in Transformers Animated. As soon as it is revealed that the giant, scary-looking alien spider is a giant, sexy-looking alien robot, Bulkhead and Bumblebee (who have apparently never seen a female of their species before) immediately drop their guard, which allows her to take them out.
 * In the Batman: The Brave And The Bold episode "Night of the Huntress!", Blue Beetle is distracted by Huntress's sex appeal instead of having his head in the game during the fights:

"Phineas: Hey Ferb, snap out of it! What happened back there? Ferb: ...I was weak."
 * In the Phineas and Ferb episode "I Scream, You Scream", Ferb's initial encounter with his Precocious Crush, Vanessa, leads to him taking the plans she was picking up and vice-versa.

"Angelica: (referring to Ms. Lion) Well, somebody's found a friend. Peter: You can say that again! Angelica: Her name is Ms. Lion. I'm Angelica. Peter: You sure are... I'm Peter Piper... Uh, P-Parker... Uh, Parker Peter--"
 * In Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, when Peter Parker first meets Angelica Jones (whilst walking Ms. Lion), he has this reaction:

"Panthro: Close that mouth, you're drooling."
 * Futurama
 * This is done mostly every time Amy Wong is wearing less than usual.
 * In Bender's Game, during the parody of The Lord of the Rings, one orc-thing climbing a ladder while assaulting the castle catch sight of Amy taking off her top through a window. Cue abundant drooling, which happens to be acidic and burns through the ladder's steps, sending him falling.
 * Happen in Welsh Stopmotion show Fireman Sam when Trevor Evans crashes a bus in "Dilys's Forgetful Day", when he drives past Penny, the new girl in the Ponypandy fire service.
 * The 2011 Thundercats:
 * In "Omens Part One", the first time Lion-O meets his Bodyguard Crush Cheetara his voice cracks. Lion-O later feigns this, using the sight of two passing women to avoid mentioning a vision he saw in the Sword of Omens.
 * In "Journey to the Tower of Omens" Lion-O, trying to master Sight Beyond Sight and failing, gets flustered when Cheetara tries a Hands-On Approach, taking him by the shoulders and telling him to relax.
 * In the same episode, Tygra openly gapes at the sight of Cheetara using her Super Speed, which Panthro lampshades with a smirk and a chiding:

"Inmate: I'm sorry, I was distracted by this fine motherfucker over here."
 * Hilariously used during an episode of The Boondocks, when Tom draws the attention of a prison inmate.

Real Life
"Taichung police has ordered the city's scantily-clad betel nut saleswomen to dress more conservatively to help reduce car accidents, it was reported. Under the new dress code, women peddling spicy chewing betel nuts at roadside stands are barred from revealing their bodies in sexy transparent clothes or soliciting business on the streets, the local TVBS station reported. Don't put on any dissipated poses such as dancing outside the sales booths, a policeman said while promoting the new dress code... Taichung police consider the so-called betel nut beauties a likely cause of traffic accidents in the central city as drivers are often diverted by saleswomen in flashy revealing clothes, the report said."
 * Close to the edge of London, there's a certain roundabout with a series of large shops surrounding it. At some point in the past, one of the shops put up a fairly innocuous advertisement that happened to feature an attractive girl without an overabundance of clothing. The sign was removed about a month later after traffic incidents on that roundabout increased by about 75%.
 * The same thing happened with a Janet Jackson billboard sometime in the 1990s. If memory serves, it might have also been in London...
 * It was claimed that the Hello Boys advert for Wonderbra would cause car accidents.
 * Played straight and subverted at the 2009 G20 summit. Presidents Obama and Sarkozy were on one side of the frame, and an attractive Brazilian intern on the other. Due to a trick of the still frame, it looked for all the world like the two were ogling the girl's backside. Video of the event shows that Obama was actually watching someone else's footing (they were on a staircase); Sarkozy... not so much.
 * Evidence for this trope in real life can be found here as well.
 * A British aquarium has had to put a bikini top on a mermaid statue in one of their fish tanks. The reason? The boys visiting the museum were too busy looking at her boobs to pay attention to the marine life.
 * The Taiwanese practice of having scantily-clad young women sell betelnuts from roadside booths is accused of causing traffic accidents:


 * Uganda considered passing a law banning miniskirts, ostensibly for this reason.
 * Barrister Alex McBride in his non-fiction book Defending the Guilty tells how he was assigned to handle a bail application for a junkie who was pretending to be insane. He was too inexperienced to realise he was being conned, until the junkie's stream of gibberish was interrupted by the sight of an attractive blonde lawyer bending over to pick up her pen, whereupon the junkie exclaimed: "Gawd, can I have her defending me?"
 * Dress reformers in the 19th c. introduced the "Bloomer costume" which consisted of a full knee length skirt over baggy trousers tied at the ankle—not exactly revealing. Yet one leading feminist abandoned the costume because whenever she addressed an audience of men they were so distracted by her ankles that they didn't hear a word she said.
 * Commercial airlines invented the Sexy Stewardess trope because when their original (male) flight attendants gave warnings about emergency procedures, it scared the passengers so badly that some would insist on being let off on the airstrip. Replacing their stewards with good-looking women invoked this trope, giving their (mostly male) clientele something to think about besides plane-crash statistics. Supposedly the decision to make interface voices (like the recorded warnings on a plane, for instance) female in general follows similar logic.
 * It seems every other summer some city in Florida bans bikini-ed girls from performing just about any commercial (or charity even) activity on the road side. Often citing traffic accident increases as the reason.
 * Men make more short-term-oriented decisions after exposure to sexual stimuli, as explained in #3 of Cracked.com's 5 Unrealistic Movie Cliches That Are Scientifically Accurate.
 * Similar to the Jennifer Tilly/Poker example above, troper Looney Toons' wife dressed in a slinky black dress to take part in one of the very first tournaments for the Collectible Card Game Illuminati: New World Order. She made it all the way to the semifinals at least in part due to the effect on her entirely-male opposition, and was congratulated by Steve Jackson himself for applying this trope as a Metagame strategy.
 * The first time Scarlett Johansson appeared on set of Iron Man 2 in the Black Widow Spy Catsuit everything came to a dead stop.