History Main / ContrivedClumsiness

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* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfTianding'' has the drink variety. One stage have your titular character DisguisedInDrag as a courtesan to investigate one of the LesCollaborateurs, where you "accidentally" spill the wine you're serving him in his shirt. You then offer to clean his clothes... and pickpocket a valuable Macguffin from him in the process.

[[folder:Video Game]]
* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfTianding'' has the drink variety. One stage have your titular character DisguisedInDrag as a courtesan to investigate one of the LesCollaborateurs, where you "accidentally" spill the wine you're serving him in his shirt. You then offer to clean his clothes... and pickpocket a valuable Macguffin from him in the process.
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However, this also means that people can, on occasion, do something generally mean-spirited to someone else in public, and potentially get away with it if it appears to have been a mistake. Of course, sometimes the person doing this ''wants'' everyone, particularly his or her victim, to know it was done very deliberately, and will communicate this by issuing an insincere or flat-out [[SarcasmMode sarcastic]] apology.

Whether or not the character engaging in this behavior chooses to cover it with a sincere apology may depend on whether or not the character believes his or her audience will sympathize with the action. For example, if Alice is a particularly vicious and foul character who is not well liked, Charlene might choose to issue a sarcastic apology after dropping a plate of tartar sauce on her cleavage; her audience will smile because they all know that Alice had it coming, and they are pleased with Charlene's courage, knowing full well it wasn't really an accident. On the other hand, if Bob is a major JerkAss who is not especially well-liked, he may attempt a sincere apology after "accidentally" tripping the much kinder and sympathetic Charlie; he knows that those watching don't like him, and the apology works as a pre-emptive defense. Of course, if Bob is very powerful, he might decide not to put any effort into making the apology sound sincere since he really doesn't care what everybody thinks since there's nothing anybody can do about it.

To err is human. Most people are aware of this, and recognize that we are all prone to the occasional act of clumsiness. Hence, when someone accidentally spills a drink, or steps on a foot, or knocks something over, most people are willing to forgive and forget if an apology is given.

This also means that people can, on occasion, do something generally mean-spirited to someone else in public, and potentially get away with it if it appears to have been a mistake. Of course, sometimes the person doing this ''wants'' everyone, particularly his or her victim, to know it was done very deliberately, and will communicate this by issuing an insincere or flat-out [[SarcasmMode sarcastic]] apology.

** In ''Series/BetterCallSaul'' episode "Five O", Mike hires Saul to spill coffee on a detective so Mike can swipe his notes.

* In ''Film/GosfordPark'', after a man posing as a servant reveals himself to be an actor and moves from "below stairs" to "above stairs". To punish him for his deception, one of the maids spills tea in his lap. Her fellow servants quickly hide their smiles, his fellow nobs shrug and keep on keeping on.

* ''ComicBookDisneyDucksComicUniverse'': In a story by Creator/CarlBarks, in which Scrooge and Donald Duck go to Saudi Arabia, a bad guy bumps into a sheikh (who, not surprisingly, looks like a duck), slipping a listening-bug onto his robe. (The bad guy apologizes, and the sheikh says, "You're a clumsy oaf!")

-->'''Aaron Stack:''' I am a clumsy robot, and [[ItMakesSenseInContext the longer I hold this dress]] [[ShameIfSomethingHappened the greater the chance something will damage it.]] Oops. My blowtorch unit seems to have accidentally lit.

* In ''Machinima/FinalFantasyVIIMachinabridged'', Aerith asks Cloud if she can look at the Shiva materia that just helped them out of a pickle. Upon getting a hold of it, she immediately shatters the materia.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheJungleBook'': At the end of the movie, the village girl spills her water, causing Mowgli to come out of the trees to help her (and eventually follow her to the village). Baloo says she did it on purpose, which Bagheera confirms.

* Aaron Stack in ''ComicBook/{{Nextwave}}'':

* ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'': In "Moral Decay", Buttercup upon learning that the tooth fairy gives you money for teeth at first tries to knock off more of Bubbles' teeth and repeatedly says "sorry" after each attempt.

* ''RaiKirah'': When Seyonne the slave recognizes a visiting nobleman as dangerous, he spills an inkwell on the noble and works [[MultitaskedConversation a covert warning]] into his effusive apology to his master.

* ''Film/TheAmazingSpiderMan2'': Peter runs into Gwen and learns that there's a security team chasing her for [[HeKnowsTooMuch doing research into Max Dillion]]. He proceeds to get them off her tail by "accidentally" bumping, tripping, and spilling coffee all over them.

* ''Film/TheAmazingSpiderMan2'': Peter runs into Gwen and learns that there's a security team chasing her for [[HeKnowsTooMuch doing research into Max Dillion]]. He proceeds to get them off her tail by "accidently" bumping, tripping, and spilling coffee all over them.

* In ''Literature/{{Millennium}}'', Louise tries this for two reasons, by spilling coffee onto a tape recorder: she wants to divert attention from the tape being played and is hoping to do enough damage that information she wants to be hidden can't be retrieved. It doesn't work, for either.

[[folder:Theatre]]