History Main / CutHimselfShaving

* Creator/JohnVarley’s ''RedThunder'': “Veneration ‘Vinnie’ Broussard fell fifty feet from a live oak(…) Or so (his father) Avery said.” RealityEnsues. “The parish coroner said that was hogwash(…) The sheriff looked at the tree (…) and concluded there was no possible way to fall through it and receive forty-eight bruises(…) Avery was sentenced to one year for manslaughter.”

* An {{inver|tedTrope}}sion in the interrogation in ''Film/{{Scarface|1983}}'', notable for its [[BluenoseBowdlerizer Bowdlerised]] rewording (from the infamous "melon farmer" version):

* In ''I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings'', Maya Angelou chronicles how, when she was eight years old, her mother's boyfriend molested her, though at that time [[InnocentInaccurate she just understood it as him holding her and making her feel good]]. After molesting her, the bed got wet and he poured a glass of water over the wet spot, telling her that she wet the bed. She got confused because she knew that she didn't wet the bed, and yet she didn't say anything to contradict him. He manages to ensure that this situation of her sleeping with him continues and no one suspects him to be the pedophile that he is until he violently rapes her and her mother finds her bloody underwear that she hid.

* In a ''Fabulous Five'' novel, one of the main characters is trying to help a girl who basically has her every move controlled by her smothering, strict, and overprotective parents. At one point, when the girl comes over to her house, the main character and her mother notice a large bruise on her arm. The girl quickly covers it up, claiming to have walked into a door. Not until near the end of the book does the reader learn this was the ''truth'', but that the girl let them think otherwise. Whether because she knew there was no point in arguing as she wouldn't be believed or wanted them to think that her parents were physically abusive as well isn't clear.

* In the Creator/SidneySheldon novel ''Nothing Lasts Forever'', Dr. Kat Hunter has been roped into working for the mob in order to pay off her brother's debts and also because the kingpin doesn't want his underlings going to the hospital where the staff would have to report their injuries to the police. Her first patient is a man who has gotten the tar beaten out of him, but when Kat asks what happened to him, the kingpin looks her straight in the eye and tells her, [[BlatantLies "He fell down a flight of stairs]]

* In ''Dead Air'' by Creator/IainBanks, the main character is beaten up by the mob, when his friends question him at work the next day he says that he fell down the stairs and then had the shit beaten out of him.

* Earlier than that, in ''Film/TheKarateKid1984'', Daniel uses the "fell offf my bike" excuse on his mom and Mr. Miyagi to hide how he got his black eye (from [[TheBully Johnny]]). His mom buys it without question, but [[TheMentor Mr. Miyagi]] quips, "lucky not hurt hand."

* In ''I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings'', Maya Angelou chronicles how, when she was eight years old, her mother's boyfriend molested her, though at that time [[InnocentInaccurate she just understood it as him holding her and making her feel good]]. After molesting her, the bed got wet and he poured a glass of water over the wet spot, telling her that she wet the bed. She got confused because she knew that she didn't wet the bed, and yet she didn't say anything to contradict him. He manages to ensure that this situation of her sleeping with him continues and no one suspects him to be the pedophile that he is until he rapes her and her mother finds her bloody underwear that she hid.

* ''Literature/CanYouSpareAQuarter'': What Frank claims when policemen question him about the bruises on his hands. In reality, he just paid a visit to Jamie's father [[spoiler:who had just almost raped the boy to death]] and had him thoroughly beaten up. The police suspects that he's lying but they don't feel sufficiently sympathetic to Jamie's father to follow up.

* Black Metal musician Varg Vikernes, after he murdered his bandmate Øystein "Euronymous" Aarseth, claimed that he stabbed Aarseth in self-defense and Aarseth's TWENTY-THREE stab wounds were from Aarseth falling on broken glass during the struggle. It is more plausible when you know that Aarseth was only wearing underwear at the time.

* In Creator/SimonRGreen's ''Hawk and Fisher'' series, one-eyed Hawk tells a noblewoman who asks him what became of his eye that he lost it in a card game.

** In a later episode, Sheldon is beat up by thugs hired by someone he knew who wanted him to destroy evidence against the guy's father. He tells Mac he ran into a wall.

* Ryouhei from ''Manga/KatekyoHitmanReborn'' tells his sister that he is participating in a boxing tournament whenever she sees him and his friends fighting when it is glaringly obvious that both sides of the fight have every intention to kill and all kinds of dangerous weapons.

* In ''[[FanFic/TheGreatSlaveKing The Marriage of the Slave King]]'', Second passes off Sombra's injuries after his torture as the result of falling down several flights of stairs. Repeatedly. Bizarrely, this actually works.
* In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'' fanfic ''FanFic/{{Pretender}}'' Robin explains his strange voice, which is because he attempted to hang himself and his throat was injured, as having Plegian sand stuck in his throat.

* In the ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' PeggySue fic ''FanFic/IAmNotGoingThroughPubertyAgain'', Sasuke accidentally rips off one of his arms. [[spoiler:He thought Sakura had attached a prosthetic arm against his permission, when in reality he had traveled back in time and was in his twelve year old body.]] When questioned by Kakashi on how he lost his arm within one day, he says he fell down the stairs.

** ''Series/LukeCage2016'': In "[[Recap/LukeCage2016S1E2CodeOfTheStreets Code of the Streets]]," Cottonmouth visits Pop's Barbershop with Shades and Tone to get a haircut, as a cover story while they search the place for Chico. Pop notices [[InvulnerableKnuckles cuts on Cottonmouth's knuckles]] from when he killed Shameek. Cottonmouth laughs and says "[[LampshadeHanging shaving]]". Pop, himself a former street brawler and who ran with Cottonmouth back in the day, isn't fooled for a second and tells Luke such after Cottonmouth leaves.

* In Season 4 of ''Series/TheSopranos'' after Chris' "intervention" for his drug addiction (where he gets the crap beaten out of him) he is taken to the ER. Tony explains to the nurse that he sustained his injuries "slipping off the kitchen counter while spraying for ants". Off her skeptical look, Tony elaborates, "Well, he was wearing socks".

* In ''Literature/TheKingdomKeepers'', Finn has to explain away an injury he got from FrickinLaserBeams by saying a bully burned him with a cigarette.

*** In "Rabbit in a Snowstorm", he shows up at the office sporting a bruise over his right eye from his fight with the Russians the night before and claims to Foggy and Karen that he wasn't looking and walked into a wall. Foggy and Karen suggest he get a seeing-eye dog.

*** By "Bang", the first episode in season 2, Foggy is claiming to Karen that Matt has a drinking problem to explain his constant Daredevil injuries, and he's not too happy with this.

'''Foggy Nelson:''' Well, it's more plausible than "you put on a devil suit and beat the shit out of strangers"!

** ''Series/LukeCage2016'': In "[[Recap/LukeCage2016S1E2CodeOfTheStreets Code of the Streets]]", Cottonmouth visits Pop's Barbershop with Shades and Tone to get a haircut, as a cover story while they search the place for Chico. Pop notices [[InvulnerableKnuckles cuts on Cottonmouth's knuckles]] from when he killed Shameek. Cottonmouth laughs and says "[[LampshadeHanging shaving]]". Pop, himself a former street brawler and who ran with Cottonmouth back in the day, isn't fooled for a second and tells Luke such after Cottonmouth leaves.
** ''Series/IronFist2017'': In "[[Recap/IronFist2017S1E7FellingTreeWithRoots Felling Tree with Roots]]", after Harold Meachum kills two enforcers Madame Gao sent to his penthouse to [[{{Fingore}} collect a finger or two as punishment]], he cuts off his left pinkie finger to make sure it seems like the enforcers did their job then disappeared. While Harold is using a clawhammer to mutilate the bodies (destroying their teeth so the police can't identify them), Ward shows up, having been summoned by Harold to dump the bodies.

** On an episode called "Waiting To Exhale", a gangster named "Little Chino" (see former pic) walks into the police station with a scar [[spoiler: from when Dexter tried to murder him the previous night and failed]]. When questioned about it, he paraphrased this tropes title.