Follow TV Tropes

Following

Distracted By The Sexy / Live-Action TV

Go To

Work Subpages


  • 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:
    "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."

  • Middle school version on 100 Things to Do Before High School. In the episode "Be a Fairy Godmother Thing!" Crispo got a 19 on a history test because he was distracted by girls' pony tails.
    • Inverted in the same episode when CJ's brother uses wigs of the founding fathers with pony tails to get him to learn.
  • 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.
  • Two clips on America's Funniest Home Videos: one had a man videoing his kids get distracted by two hot women in bikinis walking by and following them with the camera, while another had two Buddhist monks turn to look at a lady walking down some steps in a short skirt.
  • Arrow
    • Lampshaded when Caitlin visits the Arrowcave and asks Felicity Smoak what the salmon ladder is for. A Running Gag involves Felicity Eating the Eye Candy whenever Oliver Queen does some Workout Fanservice, so Felicity just sighs and says it's for "distracting me from work." She runs into the same problem after going to work for Ray Palmer and finding her new boss also likes to work out on salmon ladders.
    • In a flashback to when they were on Lian Yu, Oliver is sparring with Slade Wilson when Shado returns. As he's checking her out, Slade uses the opportunity to crack Oliver across the face with his stick.
  • Babylon 5:
    • When Sinclair and G'Kar find Londo in a strip club to confront him about his lack of action on their negotiations, G'Kar keeps peeking glances at the dancer on the stage.
    • When Londo takes Lennier to that same bar, he stops talking mid-sentence when a dancer drops her skirt right in front of them.
    • Delenn can make Sheridan forget what he was doing by appearing in a Little Black Dress.
    • In River of Souls Zack is visibly distracted when he sees an image of Captain Lochley in a holobrothel.
    • Miss Chambers in "The Lost Tales" wears a camera pinned to her blouse, right next to a Cleavage Window to make sure her interviewees look into it.
  • A Running Gag in Banacek is Jay turning up somewhere to deliver a message to Banacek, only to be distracted by the plethora of scantily clad women in the area to the point that he forgets why he is there till Banacek presses him on it.
  • Exploited in an episode of Baywatch, where a naked woman was secretly working with a thief to rob people who weren't looking.
  • 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 rifle, which ends up in a twisted, useless shape.
  • In one episode of The Big Bang Theory, one of the main characters serves as a translator between his friend's deaf girlfriend and his friend when asking her about being a gold-digger, but becomes distracted by attractive women. Note - They are at a gym, with sweaty, gorgeous women walking around.
    • Sheldon has to trade research with Kripke so they can work on a grant proposal together. It turns out that Sheldon's research isn't as far advanced as Kripke's. Kripke suggests that Sheldon's research suffers because he's in a relationship and is Distracted by the Sexy. Given that Sheldon is a Celibate Hero, this is very much not true, but Sheldon goes with it to avoid embarrassment.
  • In the Blackish episode "Real World", Rainbow throws a party for her college friends, and Dre of other men there are very impressed with how "Fat Shawn" ain't fat no more. Dre Jr., in charge of filming the party for the kids can make a pilot for a reality TV show about the family, is even more impresed, with Zoey and Diane repeatedly trying to curb his Eating the Eye Candy tendencies - and failing. Especially when Bow saves a guest's life by performing a tracheotomy which he misses because he's as concentrating on Shawn.
    Dre Jr. on getting more footage of Shawn: "I need this! [pauses]... we need this!"
  • 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.
  • 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.)
  • The Brady Bunch: At least twice, both with Greg:
    • First in the first-season episode "The Undergraduate", where Greg falls for his first hottie ... his math teacher. It affects his grades, but once he realizes that she has a boyfriend, he rights the ship and aces his classes.
    • Then in the Season 4 episode "Greg's Triangle", which the easiest girl in class, Jennifer Nichols, uses to her full advantage ... all to try to win the coveted position of head cheerleader. Marcia is also trying out. In the end, Greg chooses neither.
  • Bridgerton: When going on hunting together in season 2 episode 4, Anthony offers his hand to Kate for assistance. Instead of taking it, she lifts her skirt so high that exposes a bit of her leg skin. Despite he immediately looked away and she didn't intend to (distract him), but it's enough to make him goes slightly stammered.
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
    • Very early in the first episode, Xander first sees Buffy and promptly does this, skateboarding into the railing for the stairs up to the front of the high school.
    • No one does this more so than Sid the dummy.
    • In "Prophecy Girl", Willow sits enraptured while Xander tries his pick-up lines on her. When he asks for Buffy, Willow points out she's gone, and pathetically offers to let him practice on her some more.
    • In "Faith, Hope and Trick", Faith holds court over the Scoobies and she shares some of her war stories, chock full of nudity, a Bus Full of Innocents, crocodiles, and priests — but only the first of which catches Xander's attention (to Cordelia's consternation).
    Faith: So, it's about 118 degrees and I'm sleeping without a stick on. And all of the sudden I hear this screaming from outside, so I go tearing out, stark nude. And this church is broke down and there's these three vamps feasting on half the Baptists in south Boston, so I waste the vamps and the preacher comes up and he's hugging me like there's no tomorrow. When all of the sudden the cops pull up and they arrested us both!
    Xander: Wow, they should film that story and show it every Christmas.
    • "Band Candy" has Xander losing his train of thought as Willow's leg creeps up his shin.
      Xander: The band. Yeah. They're great. They march.
      Willow: Like an army. ...Except with music instead of bullets, and...usually no one dies.
    • Wesley's introduction to comely Cordelia ("Consequences"). "In fact, I am... here to watch... girls."
    • Subverted with Angel in Season 8 who, after seeing two attractive woman kiss, just wants to get on with the fight.
    • Faith looks like she is going to pull this in Season 9 when a slayer picks a fight with the Arsenal football team, and she later muses how she would have done it before. It turns out Faith used beer as a viable solution to the conflict.
    • In "Something Blue", Buffy and Spike fall under a love spell with each other and spend most of the episode as exaggerated Sickening Sweethearts. During the climax of the episode, they ignore Anya and Xander struggling against demons to make-out on the floor.
    • In "Entropy"; when the Trio realize the Scoobies have found their camera feeds that they'd installed to keep an eye on Buffy, they hurry to shut them all down before Willow can track them... but then they get distracted upon checking the Magic Box's feed and finding brokenhearted Anya and Spike in the middle of Sex for Solace.
  • This concept is Deconstructed in Burn Notice where Michael explains that an annoying loudmouth nuisance is actually a better distraction than a hot looking woman. This is because, the guys being distracted will want the hot babe to stick around, so extracting her safely from the situation becomes problematic, particularly while working covertly. The loudmouth nuisance however, they just want to get rid of, so the duration of the distraction is better controlled, and they don’t mind at all if the loudmouth goes away.
  • Celebrity Poker: Jennifer Tilly is really good at poker. We suspect a lot of that is psychological.
  • Sarah on Chuck is called on to do this practically Once an Episode. She even lampshades how often she's had to wear skimpy clothing to distract men on missions in a final season episode when another character balks after being asked to do so.
  • Come Back Mrs. Noah: At the end of "The Last Chance", Sir Garfield Hawk has only to press a button to fire a beam that will nudge Britannia Seven into Earth's atmosphere so that the five passengers can jump out without dying of asphyxiation. Unfortunately, at the critical moment, he is too busy gazing amorously at his fellow bridge bunny, Scarth Dare, and when he realises the countdown to firing has already finished, he frantically presses the first button he can - which fires a beam that pushes Britannia Seven away from the Earth.
  • Community: In the episode "Accounting For Lawyers", 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.
    Abed: You get any of that?
    Troy: All I heard was suck.
  • Chespirito had these aplenty in several of his productions. One notable example in El Chavo del ocho has the title character on a trial for rolling over Quico's pet cat with a bike, and he explains he did so because he dodged a guy who was staring like an idiot at a beautiful woman. That man was Professor Jirafales, who is the "judge", and when Chavo asks if he wants him to tell about it, Jirafales promptly declares him innocent.
  • Calleigh Duquesne of CSI: Miami sometimes weaponizes this, using the fact that she's a young and attractive blonde to catch potential suspects and witnesses off-guard by pretending she's interested in them and/or a Dumb Blonde rather than a highly-intelligent crime scene investigator and police officer. Someone's not giving a fingerprint? She'll flirt with them and drop something so they pick it up and hand it to her with their print on it. Obnoxious celebrity who won't talk to cops? She'll pretend to be an braindead groupie and let them run their mouth. Someone is likely to run at the first sign of a cop? She'll swish up to them and make flirty small-talk until they're cornered and then flash her badge. It works every time.
  • Danger 5:
    • Ilsa makes Jackson lose his staring contest with Tucker by taking off her panties and throwing them in his face. The fact that he can hear Ilsa crossing and uncrossing her long leather boots doesn't help.
    • Lampooned to the nth degree when a teenage boy is too busy looking at porn to notice that a girl has just ripped off her dress and is taking a shower with him.
  • In Dark Angel's "Exposure", Max is on the receiving end of a telekinetic Curb-Stomp Battle by a boy monk (long story). He assures her she can't win, and she responds by lifting her shirt up and showing him her breasts. The boy's eyes widen as he forgets about what he was doing, and Max lays him out cold with one punch ("Made you look!").
  • Death in Paradise: In "La Murder Le Diablé", Ruby tunes out the instructions JP is giving her because she is watching the butt of a fit young male climbing a ladder while wearing a pair of tight shorts.
  • Degrassi: The Next Generation: In the episode "U Got The Look", J.T. walks straight into a door divider while staring at Manny showing off her new look, primarily the visible thong above her low rise jeans.
  • Doctor Who:
    • "The Doctor Dances": The Doctor and Rose, while hiding from the gas-mask people, get into a Held Gaze while talking and fail to notice that they've been teleported into Captain Jack's ship.
      "Most people notice when they've been teleported. You guys are so sweet."
    • In "The Girl in the Fireplace", this happens to the Doctor when he sees Reinette as an adult for the first time. He's uncharacteristically speechless for a good minute.
    • In the 2011 Comic Relief special, "Space"/"Time", the TARDIS is endangered because of this trope. Here's part 1. And Part 2.
      The Doctor: Rory? Did you drop the couplings?
      Rory: Sorry.
      The Doctor: How could you do that? I told you not to drop them! I specifically mentioned, no dropping them!
      Amy: It was my fault.
      The Doctor: Of course it wasn't your fault.
      Rory: It kinda was her fault.
      The Doctor: How could it be your fault?
      Amy: Because it was my skirt, and my husband, and your glass floor.
      • Also from the same mini-sode, Amy apparently got her driver's licence on her first try because she wore the same skirt to her driver's exam.
        Rory: Have you ever seen Amy drive?
        The Doctor: No.
        Rory: Neither did her driving examiner.
      • Also from that mini-sode, Amy is distracted by, well, Amy, which distracts Rory again. (probably distracted us all for a moment quite honestly)
        Amy 1: Do I really look like that?
        Amy 2: Yeah, yeah you do.
        Amy 1: Mm, I'd give you a driving license.
        Amy 2: Mm, I bet you would.
        The Doctor: Oh, this is how it all ends, Pond flirting with herself — true love at last. [remembers Rory] Oh, sorry Rory.
        Rory: [in a near-catatonic lust-induced haze] Absolutely no problem at all.
    • In "Nightmare in Silver", the Doctor finds himself momentarily distracted at the thought of Clara wearing a tight skirt. In "The Crimson Horror", it's the sight of Jenny Flint shucking off her dress to reveal her combat catsuit. (Even though she had just hit him for kissing her, because she is not interested in men, or mammals for that matter.)
  • Dracula (2013): Lady Jayne scoffs at the idea that Grayson might be a vampire, only for Lord Browning to accuse her of this trope, given that he's a very handsome man whom she finds attractive (and also has sex with).
  • Fargo: In "The Law Of Vacant Places", Maurice interrupts Nikki and Ray in the bath at gunpoint. In an effort to distract him she rises out of the bathtub completely nude. It works... but Ray's just too slow to the draw, and she has to prompt him to disarm Maurice of his gun.
  • 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.
    • When Frank Jr meets his sister Phoebe's friends for the first time, he's bowled over by Monica and Rachel and asks the boys how on earth they can get anything done. Chandler admits they don't.
    • In one season 5 episode, Joey spends the entire episode trying to locate a hot, sexy woman who lives in Ross's apartment block. At one point, Chandler watches Joey tear out of the room after spotting her through Monica's window before exclaiming, "I gotta check out this hot girl!". He only remembers his girlfriend is in the room just as he reaches the window, swerves away from it and lands on the couch next to Monica, adding a sheepish "There she is!" and a kiss before Monica can react.
    • Chandler repeatedly fails to cancel his unused gym membership because every time he goes down there the staff bring out Maria, a gorgeous fitness instructor in a skimpy leotard who distracts him so much he can't go through with quitting. Eventually Ross goes with him to act as support and keep him focused, but he falls prey to Maria's charms and ends up joining the gym too.
    • They then decide to close their bank accounts so that the gym can't take their monthly payments. . .only for the bank executive to bring in his gorgeous assistant, making it clear that he knows how to use this tactic too.
  • Game of Thrones:
    • "The Wolf and the Lion":
      • Jory stares at a prostitute in a brothel and Ned has to yell at him wearily to get his attention. He doesn't even notice his lord leaving. The same gag is repeated in Season 3 with Tyrion and Pod, when Tyrion struggles to keep Podrick on task as they pass through Littlefinger's brothel in "Walk of Punishment" when Pod finds it very hard to take his eyes off Ros's cleavage. We're right there with you, Pod.
      • In a non-human example, Sir Gregor's stallion costs him a jousting match because the opponent's mare is in heat.
    • Seems to be the intended audience reaction to the girl-on-girl during Littlefinger's "Forget What They Know" monologue in "You Win Or You Die".
    • "The Ghost Of Harrenhal": Gendry works shirtless forging metal. Arya Stark can't help but stare at his abs.
    • Jon has a "hard" time sleeping with Ygritte grinding against him in "The Old Gods and the New".
    • In "Dark Wings, Dark Words", Sansa is so preoccupied by Loras' posterior as he walks away that she almost forgets that Margaery is there. Margaery even has to gently snap Sansa out of her reverie.
    • Lampshaded by Robb in "The Bear and the Maiden Fair" when he asks how he's supposed to get any work done with his wife lying naked on the bed.
    • "The Lion and the Rose":
      • Loras accidentally bumps into Jaime while exchanging sultry looks with Oberyn.
      • At Joffrey's wedding, Pod's almost drawn away from Tyrion's side by the spectacle of the female contortionist at work.
    • "Oathkeeper": After Joffrey's murder, Tommen is betrothed to Margaery Tyrell. She secretly visits his chambers late at night for a quick getting-to-know-you chat and Tommen practically hits puberty right then and there during her midnight visit. She, of course, is very practiced at deploying flirtation as a political stratagem.
    • "The Gift": Stannis gets distracted by Melisandre leaning over his war table and starts caressing her lower back.
    • When Brienne and Pod have something to eat at an inn, Pod is distracted by the pretty waitress.
    • Due to Pod's reputation as "the Tri-pod", he sometimes incurs this reaction in ladies at court.
  • Ginny and Georgia: Georgia distracts Paul from talking about missing Ginny by quickly changing shirts in front of him, with her bust in his face (it works).
  • 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".
  • The Golden Girls: Blanche. Just...everything Blanche. The other women have their moments but for Blanche, it's a running gag.
  • 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:
    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.
  • Occurs in Hardy Bucks a few times. Usually with Svetlana.
    Frenchtoast: That's an Onion Arse lads. T'wod make a boy cry.
  • A dramatic version occurs on Heroes in which Sylar strips his shirt off, soaks himself in order to look like he just showered, and seduces Maya in order to cover up the fact that he had just murdered her brother minutes earlier.
  • Used frequently on Hogan's Heroes where they ask the German Underground to send beautiful women to help the Heroes on missions by distracting the Germans. One notable incident however was when they need to plant a radio transmitter on a guard tower at Stalag 13 to help a squadron of B-17's, so they have Klink's secretary Helga put on a swimsuit and pose for pictures, thus distracting the guard.
  • Home Improvement: One of Tim's teenage sons guest-stars on Tool Time With Tim Taylor, the Show Within a Show and gets distracted by Heidi the Tool Girl. He tries to end the show with "See you next time".
    • "Knee You Sex Time!"
  • House had a moment of this when he saw Cameron in a red evening gown.
  • 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.
  • JAG: In "Yesterday’s Heroes", as part of the plan of busting a drug kingpin is having Mac approach him in a two piece swimsuit. It works.
  • Just Shoot Me!: Back in her supermodel days, Nina Van Horn posed in a leopard-print bikini for a billboard. She revels in how many traffic accidents it caused.
  • In Kath & 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.
  • Legend of the Seeker
    • At the beginning of "Elixir", Richard accidentally sees Kahlan taking a Waterfall Shower by a river and gets distracted by the sight of her Toplessness from the Back. When she notices him staring she starts to have a Naked Freak-Out, until she notices their horses are getting stolen right behind him and has to point it out to him to get him to pursue them.
      Richard: I was... distracted.
      Zedd: What on the Prophet's good earth could have distracted you?!
      [sees Kahlan walking up in her bodice, her hair still wet]
    • In "Mirror", Richard again gets distracted by "Kahlan" (actually a thief disguised by a magical mirror which gave her the appearance of Kahlan) when she takes her clothes off and offers to go Skinny Dipping with Richard.
      Kahlan: Someone stole the Sword of Truth? How did that happen?
      Richard: I was distracted!
      Kahlan: By a naked woman you went swimming with..
      Richard: I thought it was you!
      [Beat]
  • Leverage: Hardison and even Eliot forget what they were doing when Parker, who does not have a lot of social awareness, strips her shirt off in the elevator as part of a con. Hard to say with the camera angle but she doesn't seem to be wearing a bra, so their distraction may be understandable.
  • Lexx's Lyekka uses this to stun her victims (along with a little telepathy).
    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!
  • Frances from The Librarians (2007), whenever Lachie is around and, to a lesser extent, Christine.
  • In the Korean drama Lie To Me, all of Ah Jung's friends get distracted by the sexy Ki Jun.
  • Lizzie Mcguire: In "The Greatest Crush of All", nearly all the girls in English class have the hots for their new substitute teacher, Mr. Keith. They get stunned, spout unrelated words, and before class, a staring girl walks face first into an open locker door.
  • Married... with Children:
    • Steve once ran a marathon without meaning to because he was following a girl in short running shorts.
    • In the episode "Alley of the Dolls", the Bundys bowl against Peggy's high school rival and her family. Kelly is a bad bowler, but she proves to be useful by distracting the men on the other team.
    • In the episode "A Man for No Seasons", Joe Morgan shows up at the Bundys' house to interview Al, but cameraman Mike Piazza is too distracted by Kelly to properly film.
      Joe Morgan: Unfortunately, our audience might've missed that, since the camera's suddenly shooting Baywatch.
  • 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 Modesty Towel on her way to the nurse's showers walks by.
  • In an episode of Mchales Navy the boys are hosting a swimsuit competition on the boat. This causes a German U-boat commander to accidentally run his boat aground where it is captured by Allied forces.
  • Robin Tunney on The Mentalist — in 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."
  • Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: In Out of Control, when Kimberly first catches sight of new student - and future Green Ranger - Tommy, she’s rendered momentarily speechless (appropriate music even plays in the background).
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • In the Murdoch Mysteries episode "Murdoch in Ladies Wear", Eva Pearce has this effect on Murdoch, particularly when he interviews her at the station. Dr. Ogden later describes to him and Inspector Brackenreid how Eva took control of the interview, and Brackenreid himself mentions feeling a similar effect when he spoke with her. Later still Murdoch is on Dr. Ogden's couch describing a vivid dream he had about himself and Miss Pearce. Murdoch isn't pleased to find himself thus affected.
  • Invoked on Nash Bridges. The SIU discovers that the villains of the week have planted a hidden camera in their water cooler to monitor their activities. Their solution? Have Rachel stand in front of the camera while they ambush the guys watching the screen.
  • 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.
  • Never Have I Ever:
    • Grown men and boys alike salivate at the sight of Kamala. Even Eleanor's dedicated boyfriend Oliver can't stop his attentions from straying when she's around.
    • Gigi Hadid also gets distracted as she's narrating Paxton's life when he's shirtless and pours some liquid on his bare chest accidentally, saying to put on a shirt so she can make her point.
  • 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.
  • Captain Hastings in Poirot is prone to this:
    Hastings: What a stunning girl!
    Poirot: I sometimes think, mon ami, that you are too easily stunned.
  • A sort of PG-rated example happens in an episode of Power Rangers Lost Galaxy, where Trakeena goes to Terra Venture in disguise, and pretty much everyone starts to follow her as she suggestively walks down the street, many of them stumbling as she does so, and then a lot of them scrambling to catch a lipstick that she drops. (On purpose; the one who actually picks it up quickly finds himself holding a cockroach.) Clearly, she was doing this simply to have fun with them. Ironically, in this episode, the Monster of the Week was charged with stealing the beauty from the female inhabitants of the city in order to give to her, under her order.
  • Sara attempts this in Prison Break when the team needs a distraction in order to get into a secure room. Sara approaches the police officer guarding the door, standing close to him and touching his shoulder. It doesn't work, as the police officer warns her to back off and tells her that if she touches him one more time, he's going to arrest her. This is actually Truth in Television, as law enforcement and security personnel are trained to be very aware of this trope.
  • Queen for Seven Days: Chae-gyeong first meets Lee Yung while he's bathing. She's so distracted by his bare chest that it takes her some time to answer when he demands to know why she's there.
  • Relic Hunter: Nigel is distracted by the sight of Sydney's Sexy Silhouette as she undresses in a tent during a rainstorm in "The Emperor's Bride".
  • RuPaul's Drag Race: This often comes up when the contestants—mostly gay men and trans women—have to do a challenge involving a sexy Mr. Fanservice, whether it's the in-house Pit Crew or a special guest judge. When Wilmer Valderrama was a guest in Season 5's telenovela challenge, Coco Montrese took one look at him and promptly forgot all her lines.
  • 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.
  • Seinfeld
    • As part of her ongoing efforts to get "Braless Wonder" Sue Ellen Mischke to finally wear a bra, Elaine gives her one as a gift. She wears it all right, but as a top, with nothing over it. While walking down the street like that, she causes Jerry and Kramer to crash their car into a lamp post.
    • In another episode, Jerry and George's sitcom pilot deal falls through when NBC executive Russell Dalrymple catches George staring at his daughter's cleavage. In retaliation, Jerry and George sic Elaine on him wearing a dress that shows off plenty of cleavage to show him that men can't help but stare at cleavage when they see it.
    • In another, George hires a secretary, and Jerry assumes he's going to hire an attractive woman so he can stare at her all day, but George says if he does that, he'll be too distracted to get any work done, so he purposely hires an unattractive woman... who ends up being so hypercompetent that it turns him on anyway.
  • The Sex Lives of College Girls:
    • Kimberly any time she's around Nico.
    • Later she finds Jackson pretty distracting as well, if he's shirtless especially.
  • Sherlock: A naked Irene Adler causes Sherlock's scan to turn into a bunch of ??????
  • Smallville: A very common occurrence whenever something makes a girl Not Herself, but there are also other times.
  • Stargate-verse:
    • After a bump on the head in an episode of Stargate Atlantis, Rodney hallucinates Sam Carter to help him escape a sinking jumper. When the Sam part of his mind doesn't like the plan the rest of him comes up with, "she" invokes this trope by taking off her top and making out with him. It only works briefly.
    • Stargate SG-1: One late-season episode has a throwaway gag of resident Butt-Monkey Sgt. Siler catching sight of Sam and Vala in civilian clothes and walking into a wall.
  • Teen Wolf
    • Danny never stood a chance with a shirtless Derek in the room.
    • And Scott tends to float off into La-la Land whenever Allison's around or even mentioned.
    • In "Omega", when Lydia stumbles out of the woods naked and dirty clad only in Hand-or-Object Underwear, Stiles is the first to notice her and just stares dumbstruck without alerting anyone. Lydia soon gets frustrated and throws up her arms in frustration while demanding a coat. Stiles clumsily tries to take his father's but just stumbles into the ground instead.
    • In "Echo House", when Stiles walks on Malia showering on the boy's locker room, he immediately looks away while clumsily assuring her he wasn't staring and didn't even see anything due to the steam and keeps on babbling until Malia interrupts him by telling him she doesn't care. But later when she steps out the shower still naked he's obviously taking a peek and she teases him about it.
    Malia: Now you're staring.
  • Temps de chien: When Kim and her son Félix go to the beach, the former is distracted by a pretty guy named Gabriel. As a result, it takes her a moment before she finally responds to Félix.
  • In Three's Company, each Title Sequence has a scene of Jack getting comically distracted by the sight of a pretty woman. In the original sequence, the scene is of him driving his bike right off the road after seeing a shapely woman walk by. When the title sequence was updated after several cast changes, the new one had Jack almost falling off a zoo fence after a different woman walks by.
  • Top Gear (UK)
    • 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.
    • Jeremy Clarkson explains the "most dangerous time of year to drive" being in the summer:
      Clarkson: Sunny skies, light breezes, girls wearing short skirts.
    • Invoked by Jeremy Clarkson during Hot Hatchback challenge when they raced around the Monaco GP Circuit:
      Clarkson: Topless women! Mustn't look! Mustn't look!
    • One blooper collection shows Clarkson attempting to describe the Porsche 911 line in terms of women in skimpy tops (or as he puts it Plain English. He doesn't get far.
      Clarkson: They just put me off! These great orbs!
  • The Vampire Diaries: In "The Dinner Party", Damon is struck speechless when he finds Katherine showering in his bathroom, seemingly torn between staring and being confused about her being there at all since she was supposed to still be locked in a tomb.
  • 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.
  • In the "California Dreamin' " episode of Welcome Back, Kotter, the Sweathog boys go gaga over Bambi Forster, a transfer student who claims to be from California, until a background check reveals that she's not really from California, but has been transferred in and out of various schools.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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".
      Steve Frost: (as a Violent Glaswegian soccer fan) YOU'RE GOIN' 'OME WITH A GREAT BIG STIFFIE!
    • An outtake from the US version has a rather busty blonde audience member brought on stage for the purpose of one of the cast member improvising a song about her. The guy can't resist referencing her figure, rendering the song (and the skit) not safe for broadcast.
  • On one episode of The Wire, Bodie is trying to get other members of the Barksdale crew ready for battling corner boys from a rival gang, but Poot is more interested in two girls who are walking by.
  • Xena: Warrior Princess: In "Altared States", Xena and Gabrielle are Skinny Dipping when some soldiers chasing a boy come across them. Xena slowly emerges from the water, distracting a soldier before punching his lights out.
  • The X-Files, "Bad Blood": The story is told in "Rashomon"-Style, but at least according to Agent Mulder, Agent Scully was distracted by the sexy representative of the local law enforcement when the agents first met him. According to Mulder, she didn't pay attention and repeated the same questions which Mulder had already asked. And indeed, even in Scully's own version, Sheriff Hartwell was a Southern Gentleman type with cowboy looks, somewhat tough, yet boyish and cute. She kept watching him dreamily and was practically swooning over him.
    • A more subtle example of this trope happens in the pilot. While getting ready for a shower, Scully finds bumps on her back similar to those on the victims of the case she and Mulder are investigating. She panics and runs to Mulder's hotel room in nothing but her underwear and her robe. She drops the robe so Mulder can inspect the marks. Mulder is dumbfounded and more than a little distracted at first. Completely understandable, considering they'd known each other a grand total of two days.
  • Young Sheldon: In "Gluons, Guacamole, and the Color Purple", after his and Connie's first date, the next time Dr. Sturgis gives a class lecture while Connie's sitting next to Sheldon, he's so distracted looking at Connie that he repeats the same sentence three times, leading Sheldon to ask Connie to just wait outside.
  • Zoey 101
    • When the girls meet James, they immediately forget that came to ask Logan and Michael if they want to play basketball.
    • In the very first episode, Chase sees Zoey from a distance, waves, and promptly runs into a flagpole. On his bike. This became a Running Gag for Chase, who then proceeded to have a painful accident every time he saw Zoey after a long absence—including falling off a wall and down a flight of stairs in the series finale.

Top