Primal Scene: Difference between revisions

[[File:Screen shot 2011-01-20 at 10 24 15 AM 7886.jpg|link=Modern Family|frame|Pictured: Mental Scarring]]

{{quote|'''Kitty:''' "Oh! Oh, Red!"

 

 

 

Naturally, media always plays this as a [[Harmful to Minors|traumatic experience]], rather than the person just figuring it is natural, quickly realizing it, or just not understanding why mommy and daddy are playing leap-frog naked ([[Fridge Horror|and then after looking back on it all]], will quickly apply [[Brain Bleach]] to forget about it).

See [[Caught with Your Pants Down]] for the [[A Date with Rosie Palms|single-player version]]; for the reverse scenario with parents walking in on their adult child getting frisky, see [[Parents Walk in At the Worst Time]]. A subtrope of [[Interrupted Intimacy]].

 

{{examples}}

* In ''[[Revolutionary Girl Utena]]'', Nanami comes across {{spoiler|[[Brother-Sister Incest|Akio and his sister, Anthy]], resulting in reaction B.}}

* In ''[[Fushigi Yuugi]]'', Suboshi catches his boss Nakago having sex with his [[The Dragon|dragon]] and lover, Soi.

{{quote|"Why do you need to take your pants off every time?"}}

* In the manga ''[[Ooku]]'', the young Tsunayoshi has a breakdown after discovering {{spoiler|her father having sex with her best friend}}.

** Subverted and [[Played for Laughs]] when Lotte and [[Absurdly Youthful Father|Naoya]] deceive Elika by pretending to do [[This and That]]. [[Cheerful Child|Asuha]] walks in on this... and joins them.

{{quote|'''Asuha:''' "Why are you two naked? I'll get naked too!"}}

 

* In ''[[Watchmen]]'', a young Walter Kovacs walks in on his prostitute mother servicing a client. Unlike most instances of this trope, this is not [[Played for Laughs]] and is shown to be very [[Harmful to Minors]], the [[Jerkass|behaviour of the adults]] involved plays a part too.

** It wasn't so much the exposure to sex that damaged to him, but the fact that his mother insulted and beat him up afterwards for bothering her at "work".

 

 

* Due to a series of spoileriffic circumstances in ''[[Luminosity]]'', Elspeth ends up with almost all of her parents' memories. After a person asks a question about how much she can remember, she thinks of the wrong memory, and...

{{quote|''I ''remember'' my ''parent's honeymoon''!''}}

* Toyed with in the ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic]]'' fanfic ''[[Progress]]''. Princess Luna's embarrassed enough to flee to a castle labyrinth and [[Through a Face Full of Fur|blush bright red]] after walking in on her roommate and roommate's boyfriend, but as she's [[Really Seven Hundred Years Old|old enough]] to figure prominently in the local [[Creation Myth]] and more than old enough to be aware of sex ([[Chaste Hero|if only in the theoretical sense]]), she attributes this reaction to her old-fashioned views. Then she has a [[Real Dreams Are Weirder|particularly surreal]] nightmare about walking in on [[Cargo Ship|Celestia with Luna's Acabus]], suggesting the matter to be much more traumatic than Luna is willing to admit to herself.

* In chapter 4 of the ''[[My Life as a Teenage Robot]]'' fic ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2379730/1/My_Life_as_a_Teenaged_Von_Neumann_Device My Life as a Teenaged Von Neumann Device]'', [[Stalker with a Crush|Sheldon]] freaks out when he walks in on Jenny and Brad after they've just had sex... {{spoiler|with unfortunate consequences, as Sheldon ends up running into the street and getting hit by a car, forcing Mrs. Wakeman to [[Brain Uploading|upload his brain]] into the body of the Silver Shell.}}

** Played for laughs in a later chapter, where Tuck freaks out after walking in on Mrs. Wakeman [[A Date with Rosie Palms|pleasuring herself in the bathtub]]. And later still, when Tiff Crust walks in on {{spoiler|Mrs. Wakeman having [[Fan Disservice|"old-person sex"]] with [[Foe Yay|Doctor Mog]].}}

 

== Films ==

* Occurs in ''[[The Rebound]]'' when Sandy's young son walks in on her and Aram having sex on the living room couch. [[Hilarity Ensues]]. Not much mental scarring though.

* A very dark version occurs in ''[[Orphan]]'', when Esther catches Kate and John having sex over the kitchen counter.

 

== Literature ==

* In ''[[Vorkosigan Saga|Memory]]'', Miles has a moment of surprise when he realizes his Aunt Alys (widowed since shortly before Miles's birth) has started sleeping with his former boss, ex-[[The Spymaster|Spymaster]] Simon Illyan. When Alys's son Ivan finds out, he has reaction B, and the reader gets a nice dose of reaction C from the interplay.

** Unlike most instances of this trope, Miles and Ivan are adults. Ivan's reaction has more to do with: a) the fact that [[Squick|this is his]] ''[[Squick|mother]]'' we're talking about, and b) the fact that ''both'' Simon and Alys have public reputations for being extremely prim and proper (well, for Simon it's more "respectable" than "prim"), and [[Naughty by Night|what they're doing together]] is... not.

* Briefly discussed in ''[[Head Count]]'' by Ingrid Noll: when Maya is in counselling after {{spoiler|accidentally killing her brother}}, she makes up a dream about being a little bird that flies around and looks into people's windows. Her psychiatrist assumes that she must have walked in on her parents as a child.

* [[Norman Mailer]]'s ''[[The Castle in the Forest]]'' has none less than a young [[Adolf Hitler]] being traumatised after walking in on his parents having sex in the 69 position.

 

== Live Action TV ==

'''Ross''': Yeah?

'''Monica''': Well I just caught the live show. }}

* ''[[The Drew Carey Show]]''. His response to a psychiatrist:

{{quote|"Why is Daddy hurting Mommy? Wait, he's not hurting Mommy, he's loving Mommy."}}

* On ''[[Modern Family]]'', Phil and Claire's kids walk in on them having sex which traumatizes both Claire and the kids. Phil tries to deal with it humorously. The family have an uncomfortable talk about it.

* ''[[King of Queens]]'' Doug and Carrie look after Deacon and Kelly's kids at their apartment while they're out of town. One of the kids walk in on Doug and Carrie having sex and draws a picture of it.

* Referenced in [http://youtu.be/iD1Xjdr1TbM?t=40s this scene] from ''[[Eastbound and Down]]''.

* In ''[[Mad Men]]'', Sally Draper sees {{spoiler|her step-grandmother giving a blowjob to her [[Honorary Uncle]] Roger Sterling.}} Given that she's pretty precocious (despite being only 12 or 13, she's more aware than the average girl her age, and {{spoiler|has been masturbating herself for at least a year}}), she doesn't seem to be particularly scarred—merely astonished and kinda disgusted.

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

** A pretty tragic example, seeing as he was just remembering the woman he loved and it causes Sasha to freak out so badly he runs away from home.

* ''[[You Don't Know Jack]]: The Ride'' includes a question, based on the idea that [[Steven Seagal]] movies all have three syllables (''[[Under Siege]]'', ''[[Hard to Kill]]'', et. al.) and asks the contestant(s) to identify the likely plot to a Seagal movie named ''Primal Scene'' (the correct answer, of course, being the outline of this trope). At the end of the round, players are treated to someone impersonating Seagal's voice and acting style and blandly exclaiming, "Oh no, mom and dad are wrestling!"

 

== Web Comics ==

* It happens ([[NSFW]]) in ''[[Sexy Losers]]'' (the strip is even titled "Primal Scene"), and being ''SL'', it [[Squick|wasn't your garden-variety sex]]...

* [http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=161 Happened to Faye] from ''[[Questionable Content]]''.

** Marten is apparently fine with his professional dominatrix mother describing her sessions with clients. [http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=441 But if she's talking about his dad...]

* Hilariously subverted in ''[[Niels]]'' when Kiddo [http://humon.deviantart.com/gallery/12482917?offset=48#/d2boaha walks in on this.]

* An early ''[[Kevin and Kell]]'' had Rudy walking in on the two titular characters doing some [http://www.kevinandkell.com/1996/kk0528.html roleplaying].

 

== Web Original ==