History Main / CoveredInMud

* The most moving scene in the Israeli war movie ''Kippur'' (2000) involves the protagonists who are army medics, trying to evacuate a stretcher-born casualty through the mud, but they keep slipping and falling over.
* One of several indignities that befall Leslie Bibb's character in ''See Spot Run''.

* Possibly the earliest movie example is the 1913 short ''A Muddy Romance'', in which the villain drains Echo Lake while the rest of the cast are on it in boats. They then have to be dragged to safety across the muddy lakebed. The whole film is also an example of ThrowItIn: Mack Sennett, hearing that Echo Lake was being drained, sent his actors, writers and cameramen to film it, and came up with the storyline en route.

* {{Downplayed|Trope]] in ''Anime/MyNeighborTotoro'': Mei trips and falls into a mud puddle, getting mud all over the front of her dress and her face while she and Satsuki are running home from school in the rain.

* Happens to Mei in ''Anime/MyNeighborTotoro'' when she trips and falls into a mud puddle while she and Satsuki are running home from school in the rain.

[[caption-width-right:350:That looks embarrassing.]]

* Happens to Mei in ''Anime/MyNeighborTotoro''.

* Elephants, rhinos and other large mammals (usually pachyderm types) regularly roll in mud to protect their skin from sun and insects. Pigs will roll in it, but aren't as filthy as people always think they are. Pigs lack sebaceous glands, and thus the mud serves the same purpose as sweat--as the water evaporates, it carries the heat away with it. The dirt merely serves as an adhesive to hold the water to their skin.

* ''Fanfic/TheBoltChronicles'': In “The Blood Brother,” Bolt’s friend Duke gets coated head to tail in muck after rolling in a mud puddle.

* Pivotal at the steeplechase at the end of the Creator/MarxBrothers ''Film/ADayAtTheRaces'': Jockey Harpo on the good guy's horse and another guy on the bad guy's horse are neck and neck to win when they take a spill into a big mud hole. Hurrying back into the race, the other guy comes in first...but a quick wash-off reveals it's on the good guy's horse.

* In the first segment[[note]]originally the short film "Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree[[/note]] of ''WesternAnimation/TheManyAdventuresOfWinnieThePooh'', Pooh covers himself in mud on purpose via rolling in a mud puddle and floats up to a bee hive using Christopher Robin's balloon to attempt to get honey. It doesn't work and the duo have to hide in a different mud puddle to escape the swarm of bees.

--->Once favored by rogues as a blinding agent, it was abandoned for more readily available resources... like dirt.

* In ''Literature/TheHungerGames'', Peeta uses a large amount of mud with plants on top to disguise himself as part of a riverbank when he is too injured to move.

Now, while getting muddy may ''not'' be the character's choice, there are times when they'll intentionally cover themselves in mud. It may have a practical purpose such as helping to camouflage them or keep off stinging insects. Or, perhaps, they may be getting extremely dirty in order to help someone else out, in which case they're seen as being more humble and selfless because they put themselves in that position. Sometimes, if the mud is from a character that spends a lot of time outside, such as gardening, it can imply that they're more of a down-to-earth person who spends more time actually ''doing'' things than worrying about their appearance.

* In ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', rogues have the ability "blind" which pretty much consists of [[AHandfulForAnEye throwing dirt in one's face]] (previous versions had them carry special "blinding powder", which became ShopFodder after the need for it was removed).
** {{Lampshade}}d in blinding powder's new item description:

* ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter Tri'' introduces the Barroth, the [[TRexpy love child of a Tyrannosaurus Rex and a Bulldozer]] that is often covered in mud. It has a habit of shaking said mud off, and any hunters unfortunate enough to get hit by the flying globs are covered in quickly-hardening mud that makes it impossible to attack (and open to getting plowed under by the Barroth!)

* The heroines of ''Anime/ZombieLandSaga'' end up doused head to toe while participating in the Kashima Gatalypics. (An event that takes place in the mud flats and is entirely based on getting covered in mud.) It's later enforced, as while there are public showers for the contestants to clean off in between events, doing so washes off their make-up, running the risk of revealing their zombie forms to the public. So they run right back into the mud again.

* In ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', rogues have the ability "blind" which pretty much consists of [[AHandfulForAnEye throwing dirt in one's face]] (previous versions had them carry special "blinding powder", which became VendorTrash after the need for it was removed).

* During ''Film/RolloAndTheSpiritOfTheWoods'', Millie the Elf trips over a root while she runs, landing face down in a sludge pond. With her face covered in mud, she goes to meet Rolli the second time. He doesn't at first recognize her until she washes herself.

* Near the end of ''WesternAnimation/TheHarlemGlobetrotters'' episode "Hold That Hillbilly", Granny has Cora Coy dive into a mud puddle. She thus transforms Cora from HollywoodHomely into a ravishing sexpot, with whom Rock Flatfield is instantly smitten.

* The ''WesternAnimation/MikeLuAndOg'' episode "For the Love of Mike" had Mike getting the [[AbhorrentAdmirer unwanted attention]] of Haggis and Baggis after getting covered in mud. The same thing happens to Lu at the end.

* Baby Butter on ''WesternAnimation/PBAndJOtter'' loves to do this and when the Otters' Aunt Nanner sends them a MysteryBox as a gift that they must wait to open until she arrives, Butter imagines that the box contains mud.

** In "That Sinking Feeling" Baljeet and his childhood friend Mishti, in a flashback from before she "[[SheIsAllGrownUp turned into a]] ''[[SheIsAllGrownUp girl]]''", are seen playing and covering each other in mud.

** At the beginning of the episode "Tricycle Thief," Angelica rides Susie's tricycle without her permission and ends up crashing it into a garden gnome and flying into a mud puddle. The babies find this hilarious, but Angelica storms off in a huff.

* This happens in the ''WesternAnimation/WhatsNewScoobyDoo'' episode "Reef Grief!" where Scooby and Shaggy compete in a sand castle tournament. Spencer Johnson covers his hypnotized competitors with mud so they can build his underground freeway.