He isn't a pervert. No, really! His hands just happened to slip and find themselves on her breasts. He just happened to trip on that rug over there and land (probably head-first) on top of her ample chest. Maybe he needed to use the bathroom and ran into her taking a bath or a shower. And he just happened to be there when the only wind of the day blew up her skirt and his only sin was instinctive goggling. He can't help it if his honest-to-goodness accidental moves make him come off as as a lech that can't even muster the... "slickness"... of the Casanova Wannabe.
A characterization trap here is that they sometimes come across as really being lecherous, but are too incompetent and cowardly to be open about it. They really are leering at female body parts; but are terrified of getting hit or yelled at — or more charitably, they're tempted despite realizing that it would be wrong; in either case, the gropings are a type of Freudian slip. Of course, the girls will never believe him, and almost always believe the least charitable interpretation (even at times where it's clearly not his fault). Cue Armor-Piercing Slap, shrill cries, and desperate attempts at redemption. In comic works, the slap is often replaced with the Hyperspace Mallet or Paper Fan of Doom, and god help you if you have this character trait within striking range of a Tsundere.
For all practical purposes, his life is a Fanservice-laden version of Cold Turkeys Are Everywhere.
Note the possible This Loser Is You implications.
Regularly results in Pervert Revenge Mode. See also Naked First Impression and Thanks for the Mammary. Overlaps with Not What It Looks Like, except that Accidental Pervert refers to a character type to which this kind of thing happens all the time, rather than just a few times. He's usually also the Unlucky Everydude to emphasize his sheer bad luck in scoring with girls. This can also happen to the Chaste Hero or Celibate Hero, for the obvious comic value. When played straight, the Accidental Pervert has at least some elements of the Chivalrous Pervert, which he may become outright if he gains enough confidence to come to terms with his libido. They can often be mistaken for The Peeping Tom. They fall into this if they Crash Through the Harem.
A lot of the times, this trope can feel rather forced due to the very unlikely circumstances around it. Sometimes, it isn't so much bad luck, as it is characters grabbing the Idiot Ball. The girl may not always be very cautious (like changing clothes in her bedroom without covering the windows). This could lead into a Double Standard as the male one is treated as the pervert, even though it's at least partially the girl's fault. Guys are not exempt from this however, as they often walk into situations that you just know are going to end up like this (like barging into a girl's bedroom without even knocking).
Sharply contrast Unprovoked Pervert Payback for when the guy didn't even get to see anything and the attack just comes out of nowhere.
Examples
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Advertising
There's an ad where a woman on a plane attempts to climb over the sleeping man sitting next to her to get to the aisle. Through a series of mishaps, she ends up with her sleeves snagged (pinning her arms behind her back) and her blouse popping open. The man wakes up with the woman's breasts (covered by her bra) in his face.
An Australian ad for copy paper featuring a pre-Chuck Yvonne Strahovski ends with Yvonne climbing on top of the bed tray of an office scanner to retrieve a package of paper from a shelf, and accidentally kicking the "scan" button. She's wearing a miniskirt. Cue hapless office drone who comes by and unwittingly picks up one of the scans just as Yvonne turns around... The ad can be seen here.
Which is nearly a 100% ripoff of a Japanese commercial where an office lady climbs on top of a copier to get some pocky(?) or different kind of chocolate snack. Who keeps that in the office supply cupboard is anybody's guess though.
There's a Speedstick deodorant commercial that's about a man who's been waiting for a dryer to become available for a very long time, so he decides to unload it himself. He drops a piece of clothing and politely picks it up, not realizing that it was a pair of panties until the beautiful girl who they belonged to showed up. He even lampshades it.
And now I look like a total pervert.
Anime & Manga
Keitarō in Love Hina is by far the most egregious example. The manga even has a filler chapter where Keitaro is so engrossed in studying he winds up dong several 'cool' things in front of the girls while studying (dodging attacks, defending them from turtles, and of course not 'peeping'). This spurs the girls into actually wanting to impress him to gain his affection, something which wouldn't be repeated until many, many chapters later. He studies so hard though, that he doesn't seem to notice and by the end of that chapter, pretty much everyone in Hinata Sou (yes, even Naru) is all like We Want OurJerkAccidental PervertBack.
In an episode of the anime, the girls actually spot an impostor Keitaro when he catches a falling Shinobu without "tripping and falling and landing with his head up her skirt."
Mazinger Z: It happened several times, not only to Kouji (which is not surprising) but also to Sayaka. One example of it was original manga's episode 8 when they saw each other naked in the hot springs. Curiously there was not slapping or reproaching. After the initials screams they calmed down and apologized at each other. It was even cute.
And in the Mazinger vs Great General of Darkness movie, Kouji accidentally walked in Sayaka when she was having a shower in one of the first scenes. This time he was slapped.
; she's actually more upset by Boss getting a look at her breasts than she is by Kouji, even though he weaponizes her boobs in order to escape the enemy fortress.
Ranma in Ranma ½ falls victim to this many times, especially when Happōsai is nearby. It appears that people often suspect further lecherous acts from him based on previous non-existent lechery. Akane is near-always the misinterpreter, which shouldn't be surprising given her character. He gets ratted on when Shampoo is near (does the girl exhale stupidity gas? Whenever she's around, everyone else cannot think of the obvious and jumps to dumb conclusion), and when he barges in on Akane's room, as well as the Happy scenes.
Seems more prevalent for only Akane to misunderstand or for her to instigate the misunderstanding in the anime. In the manga, it's other people just as often, especially in the Hinako introduction arc.
Girl #1: Don't just stand there, Akane.
Akane: What do you mean?
Girl #2: Ranma is making the moves on another woman again.
In Elfen Lied, Kouta's cousin Yuuka slaps him a lot for this. The first time it happened, Nyu had been out in the rain and her clothes were soaked. Kouta tried helping her change with his eyes closed, but his cousin walked in at just the right moment for his honest explanation to be hardest to believe. Of course, it's all because Yuuka's a Clingy Jealous Girl over how he doesn't pay the same apparent attention to her.
This drops out of sight almost completely when the drama gets dialed Up to Eleven.
In Mahou Sensei Negima!, Negi occasionally falls into these situations. But because of his age, the girls are usually far more likely to blow it off or tease him about it than they are to get mad. Hell, they probably put him in the situation in the first place just to tease him! Okay, except for the billion or so times he sneezes and magically blows all their clothes off.
One of the most egregious cases involves Negi falling over Asuna in a giant bathroom... while both are nekkid. Then there's the scene in Chapter 1 when he tries to erase Asuna's memories and ends up shredding almost all of her clothing except for her jacket.
It also happens almost as frequently to the female characters, due to Negi's age absolving him of blame. For example, in one of the many "Asuna and Negi fall on top of each other while naked" scenes, a bunch of the other girls walk in on them and accuse Asuna of having her way with their innocent young teacher. Or the time when Ayaka walked in on Makie peeking under Negi's towel. Or when Setsuna grabbed Negi's crotch during a fight because she didn't realize it was him.
Despite being about zombies, High School Of The Dead manages to get this into it's series, one moment especially stands out where one of the girls gets splashed by water coming up from the sides of a hoovercraft, the protagonist turning around and her shouting "I'M A LADY" seeing as her School Uniformis drenched.
In Hayate the Combat Butler just about every named female has this happen at some point. Early on in the series Hayate encountered Nagi naked a few times, since his reactions are quite un-perverted they trigger some insecurities in Nagi regarding their 'relationship'. Nishizawa also had a similar moment in Greece. Even Aika, a minor character from the Student Council, got her clothes soaked while visiting and used it to manipulate Hayate into doing some embarrassing errands for her. Maria had about one moment when Hayate tripped on the carpet and landed face-first in her chest while attempting a joke for Sakuya (the actual "punchline" was Nagi beating the tar out of him since Maria didn't seem to react much).
Hinagiku is an odd case where her sister was the one causing these; for a while there was a joke on the forums that Hayate never got to see any Hinagiku-fanservice. This has changed some in later chapters; here Hayate opens a door without knocking while ''actually saying'' that there is an extremely high probability of Hinagiku changing on the other side (in fact, that is the reason why the door is special...). Given that both of their reactions seem to imply that this has happened many times before, fans have started wondering if Hayate does it on purpose sometimes...
Athena seems to have escaped this so far, likely due more to a lack of screen time or the fact that the story tends to be more serious when she pops up.
Ruka tops most of the others when she changed in front of him and even got into a bath that Hayate was in, when she thought Hayate was a girl. This caused her a lot of embarrassment when she finds out the truth.
Partially subverted in the third season of Lyrical Nanoha; Erio catches a falling Caro as a way of introduction and ends up with a handful of petite bosom. The subversion is how Caro doesn't get angry, and they quickly and efficiently disengage. This combined with Caro later counting this as a "beloved memory" has lead fans to joke that in Caro's mind, they are now married.
Also partially subverted in the first season with Yuuno. HE knows that he's actually a human male, as opposed to the sentient ferret he appears to be, and that Nanoha should probably not be doing things like undressing in front of him and dragging him into the girl's bath at the local hot springs. She, however, is ignorant of this fact, and proceeds to do both of the above. To his credit, he thought she was aware of his true form, and presumably he simply believed she just wasn't a very modest person. And in both of the above situations, he has the good grace to freakin' panic.
Of course, Yuuno might actually have had the right idea about her! Years later, in the pre-StrikerS manga, Nanoha still wants to take Yuuno with her on a girls-only trip to a hot springs resort. Yuuno is understandably still nonplussed. What this says about Nanoha's thoughts toward him is a matter of interpretation. Unfortunately, we never hear what the other girls who went on the trip (and who also knew about Yuuno) thought about Nanoha's idea.
Several instances in Ouran High School Host Club, one being when Haruhi walks in on Tamaki in his underwear. Awkward.
To Love-Ru has Rito as the ultimate embodiment of this trope, and while Lala doesn't particularly mind in most cases (with the exception being her tail, which is apparently an alien erogenous zone, so, naturally, one chapter involves Rito getting his hand stuck to it), it doesn't stop all the other girls on Earth, including more inhibited aliens, from smacking him in the face and screaming.
Subverted in Vandread, where the females in the crew, being unused to sexual interactions with men, rarely seem to mind the protagonist walking straight into their jiggling bosoms, often letting him loiter for a bit.
The above example only has one practitioner, Jura, who is a tremendous flirt. But the trope also played to an extreme in the episode where Hibiki's Accidental Perversion gets Bart thrown into quarantine, and leads to a strange campaign to get rid of the men — involving spacesuits worn as quarantine outfits. The girl he ended up in a compromising situation with is extremely reclusive and actually wears a full-size bear costume as her "uniform".
Episode 5 of the TV series has Shinji dropping off stuff at Rei's apartment, when a naked-except-for-a-towel Rei steps out of the shower. Shinji trips and falls on top of her, his hand landing on her naked breast. Her only reaction? Stoically ask him to get off.
Episode 8 has Shinji waiting as Asuka is changing clothes downstairs. Impatiently he peeks at her to see if she is done and he sees her partially naked. Cue Asuka donning a Luminescent Blush as she grumbles about pervert boys.
Earlier in the episode, he shared this with Touji and Kensuke. Touji's cap was blown in the wind and landed next to Asuka, who stepped on it. The three went to retrieve it, a Dramatic Wind flew, and since Asuka was wearing a sundress they caught a view of her panties. The next moment (and one cut to the episode's title later), Asuka has bitchslapped the three of them.
In episode 10 Asuka leans over Shinji as she is helping him with his homework. She is wearing a swimsuit and Shinji accidentally gets a very good glace at her cleavage. Maybe subverted since she might be hitting on him (given her next words) in a very clumsy way.
Rebuild of Evangelion 2.0 ups the ante several degrees. Remember the toothpick scene from 1.0 and the TV series? This time Asuka is on the receiving end (with Scenery Censor assistance, unfortunately) and Shinji happens to turn around. It takes her a few seconds to realize why he is blushing but when she does, does she bother to cover herself? Noooo, she runs up and kicks him in the face while stark naked as calling him a "stupid pervert".
In the Girlfriend of Steel videogame -several years older than Rebuild- there was a very similar scene. During an enemy attack that took place when Asuka was taking a shower, she ran towards the balcony without realizing she was stark naked, and Shinji saw her. At the beginning she did not kick him, but then he did a Deadpan Snarker comment, and... well...
Also in Rebuild, when Mari parachutes onto the school roof she lands on Shinji. It takes her a few seconds to realize she has a boy in Marshmallow Hell.
Yuuichi Tate and Masashi Takeda in the first few episodes of Mai-HiME, before the series takes a darker turn. I.e., when Natsuki was Going Commando thanks to a Panty Thief, she was talking to Takeda at one moment, and then a dramaticWind flew... eeeeep.
Kyon from Haruhi Suzumiya is constantly walking in on Mikuru changing in the clubroom.
Kyon: That sweet, innocent girl... can't seem to figure out how to lock a door.
Though Mikuru does not think he is a pervert because of it. Fascinatingly, she's not even embarrassed after the incident, happily pouring tea into his cup afterwards.
Not a real accident, but deliberately engineered by a third party in All Rounder Meguru.
Granted, he really IS something of a pervert, but the Hideki, the male lead of Chobits, seems to suffer this as a constant source of amusement... especially embarrassing seeing how Chii is the Innocent FanserviceRobot Girl.
Kouta Oyamuda from Kanokon is frequently falling into this position in front of the girls at his school, such as that they call him the "Great Ero-King". Actually, it's quite the opposite: Chizuru (his girlfriend) is the one who's always making a move for him and getting the both of them into... questionable positions.
Ryo in Penguin Revolution keeps accidentally catching Yukari bathing or changing clothes, and usually gets things thrown at his head when he does.
Ayaori also tends to wander into the bathroom while Yukari is bathing, but since he's Blind Without 'Em, it takes him six manga volumes to even notice that she's not a boy. By the time he does, Yukari is so used to having him wander blindly in and out that she doesn't really react, not realizing that this time he has his contacts in.
Occasionally in Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch, Lucia will happen to walk in on Kaito in the shower, although he doesn't get mad about it. There's also the time when he breaks her fall and just happens to end up with his face in her chest... Then again, Kaito is an out-and-out pervert most of the time, explaining his easygoing attitude even when it's his mistake.
Sōsuke falls afoul of this trope a few times in Full Metal Panic, at one point causing Kaname to come at him with a baseball bat.
In Inubaka: Crazy for Dogs, Teppei has to go into the storage room to get something. Yeah, too bad the new recruit is in there changing... and then, later on, when he has to get something else, he finds Suguri with no pants. He then wonders if building a girls' dorm was wasted.
The Kindaichi Case Files: Kindaichi is a genuine pervert who tries to pretend that he got into these kinds of situations by accident, but he has had his share of unintentional walk-ins, including one time he accidentally barged into a bathroom while it was occupied. He'd then realize later that the character claiming to be female had been peeing with the toilet seat up, and this lead to the solution to the mystery.
Strangely enough, Tails becomes one of these in the Sonic the Hedgehog OVA. At one point he, Knuckles and Princess Sarah get enveloped by an out-of-control snowball. When they crash and the snow settles, Tails winds up plastered to the chest of the Princess, only to be quickly admonished by an outraged Knuckles. Somewhat ironically, Sarah, who spends most of the movie savagely attacking people she believes are trying to see her naked, does not react to Tails' accidental groping.
Considering the fact that Tails isa lot more innocent than Dr. Robotnik or Metal Sonic, his case was probably more believable to Sarah.
In Detective Conan, since Ran doesn't know Shinichi/Conan's real identity, she's either undressed in front of the kid and/or taken baths with him. Hilariously lampshaded by his mother Yukiko, who after she manages to keep Ran from finding out his identity, eagerly tells him that Ran would be not happy to find out that the kid she took baths in front of was actually the love interest she's Tsundere for...
Ran also played the role once, when she inadvertently saw an important clue pertaining to the identity of the killer when she accidentally walked in on each male member of a local Drama Club while they were changing.
In the first arc of Dragon Ball, Goku — being raised in the mountains until he met Bulma — doesn't know how to confirm gender by look, so he innocently pats the girls' privates for any... well, balls. This resulted from an interesting situation in episode 2 when he took off Bulma's undies while she's sleeping...
In Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Simon ends up with his face in Yoko's breastsafter they and Kamina bust through to the surface world in the Lagann, following a messy landing. Yoko curiously doesn't seem to mind; in fact, she pulls Simon's face back into her breasts in a gesture of fright when she then sees two Gunmen approaching. This actually foreshadows the conflict between them as it becomes clear that Yoko sees him as a child despite his obvious romantic feelings toward her.
Ryota in Kyou No Go No Ni always finds himself in some perverted situation. Such as: falling sick and heading to the nurse's office, only to find that Chika has had her clothing stolen by her friends. Or when Chika is being forcibly stripped by her friends to measure her size — that girl needs some new friends.
One especially bad situation happens in the first episode. After Ryota and Natsumi are accidentally looked in the athletic equipment shed by a coach, it turns out that she is afraid of the dark and grasp at him for comfort while sobbing... inadvertently pulling his pants down while he tries to get her head away from his crotch. When the coach opens the door, it appears that Ryota is trying to force her to perform fellatio on him. The fact she thanked the coach for saving her did not help his case. This kind of sets the tone for the series, really.
Spoofed in Wedding Peach Abridged. In the original series, this trope is played straight and Yosuke is sometimes inadvertently put into compromising positions. In The Abridged Series, these scenes are edited so that he is portrayed as a Lovable Sex Maniac.
In Fullmetal Alchemist Botherhood , Winry walks into her bedroom and starts undressing, without realizing Ed is in the room with her. He gets to see some underboob. Interestingly, while her reaction is explosive, it is more targeted towards the people who enters the room after her screaming. Ed can be seen still in her room after she has changed, while everyone else has been driven out.
Also in Botherhood, Envy walks in on Edward after Edward just left the shower, and he has no pants or towel on. Screaming ensues.
In the 2003 anime version, Ed accidentally grabs Psyren's breast while fighting her, and blushes awkwardly. Psyren lampshades this and asks him if it's the first time he's fought a woman.
Louie in Rune Soldier suffers from this a lot! There are at least three examples in the first episode alone.
Jin from Kannagi; our hero always seems to find himself in strange situations when his childhood friend comes in.
Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple sees Kenichi accidentally groping Miu on a few occasions, usually when one of his master scares him. His first reaction is usually to run right to Miu and grab her from behind, leading to the inevitable...
In a recent episode, Shigure accidentally crushes down the screen between Kenichi and Miu in the dressing room (when stopping Ma Kensei from taking pictures of Miu). This results in Kenichi suddenly seeing Miu (almost completely) naked. Next panel? Kenichi all beaten up and Ma Kensei observing that Kenichi actually shows no regrets about it.
Partially subverted in the case of Tona Gura male lead Yuuji Kagura. He doesn't mean to walk in on female lead Kazuki in awkward situations, but he also doesn't hesitate to exploit them.
In SHUFFLE!, Rin ends up this way with just about every girl he can court, and inevitably with one he normally cannot (the last leads to a heated argument about who is more perverted).
Death the Kid in Soul Eater. He will never live down his introduction episode. First, he goes off on a symmetry rant and without thinking about it, grabs both partner's breasts, to get an Armor-Piercing Slap from Liz... who was not complaining about being groped. Then later the same episode, Kid is going to go save them, but they had been all tied up at the moment...and Kid was really not much help.
Pumpkin Scissors: "Lieutenant, I need your breasts immediately!" Alice slapped his face and then noticed the crying baby he was holding.
Kyōsuke in Ultimate!! Hentai Kamen. A few other characters, but mostly him; possibly due to his Only Sane Man syndrome.
Nonomiya Nono from Nononono seizes on the assumption that she's a pervert/transvestite rather than be found out as a girl when the local tsundere finds her changing and sees her panties.
In Gundam SEED, when Kira is trying to get Lacus off the Archangel, he attempts to give a space suit to put on, but they both quickly notice that it won't fit over the very long dress she is wearing. Lacus responds by, to Kira's chagrin, taking it off right in front of him, giving the audience and poor Kira a very good shot of her pink panties.
Since it's a harem comedy, this happens a few times to Maeda from Ai Kora. Though given that Maeda isa raging pervert, the girls can usually be forgiven for jumping to this conclusion.
Of course, there's also the first meeting with his love interest, a woman whose magic causes her body to be made entirely out of water. When trying to freeze her in the middle of battle he grabs the first thing he can get a hold of: her boob.
Eiichirou from Baby Steps is referred to as a stalker and a pervert, much to his chagrin, starting when he was caught watching Natsu in secret while she was practicing for her tennis club.
Once an Episode for Akiharu in Ladies Versus Butlers!. On his first day he made memorable first impressions by accidentally molesting the entire female population of his new school.
He's thrown onto Mariel during an earthquake and accidentally gropes her breasts.
The puppy Fenrir jumps on him and knocks him and Mariel down. He ends up lying face down on top of her.
La Verite episode 12: He inadvertently gropes one of his personal maid's breasts while sleepily trying to turn off an alarm clock.
Kosuda from B Gata H Kei provides examples of this on a few occasions, though the difference is that his girlfriend (and series protagonist) Yamada wants it.
Problem is, he has no idea. That she wants it. Or even that she's his girlfriend.
Kickboxing trainer Kunimitsu from Ayane's High Kick is labeled as pervert both for his That Came Out Wrong method of introduction, and for wrapping his arms around his student Ayane's chest when trying to prevent her from leaving the ring.
A rare example of the accidental pervert getting away with it: In Ultimate GirlsKaiju obsessed high school reporter Makoto hears someone in a room yell "monster", bursts in, takes several photos, reloads his camera, takes more photos, realizes his mistake, and politely leaves. The room was filled with girls who were changing their clothes. Several seconds go by before the first of them reacts.
In the OVA of Guyver: out of control; after his first battle, Sho carries and unconscious Mizuki to her house. She then wakes up to see him carry her, more specifically notices his hand under her rear. She then jumps off him and says "Sho, you're a pervert!!" before running off. Leaving him confused.
If Touma casually opens a door, there will be a girl changing on the other side, regardless of what kind of room it is. No exceptions. If Touma bumps into a girl, he'll most likely end up touching her boobs or something. Even when walking in a public park, he isn't exempt from this. This is partly justified in how this guy is supposed to be rather unlucky (although YMMV on how "unlucky" it is to invoke this trope). But a lot of the times, it's because the girl and/or Touma grabbed the Idiot Ball.
Accelerator gets some of this too, such as the time he walked in on two busty twenty-something year-olds (and a little girl) all naked in the shower. Unlike Touma though, his reaction is more "Are we really doing this? Why didn't you lock the door?"
Chigusa, from Silver Diamond, is a frequent example of this trope. So much so that he gets labelled as a pervert by almost every single character that meets him. Pretty much the only one who doesn't is his most frequent victim, Rakan.
Whenever Kagome is bathing and isn't in her own time, Inuyasha will see her naked.
Axis Powers Hetalia: Holy Roman Empire. Several times he has accidentally lifted up (or pulled down) Chibitalia's shorts.
In addition, Italy and Romano both have hair curls that function as erogenous zones. Both have been unknowingly felt up by Germany and Spain, respectively.
Genshiken Nidaime's Yajima bravely protects cross-dresser Hato's honour by tackling Yoshitake to stop her from going through his things while he showers. Unfortunately, her flailing hand pulls the bathroom door open to reveal a bollock-naked Hato; Yajima sees everything. Cue girly shriek from Hato and refusing to come out.
Masataka of Sakura Gari meets Katsuragi... when he walks in on him giving Souma head.
In Angel Beats!, the second episode sees a human ladder form when Otonashi, Hinata, and Yuri all fall into a pit and grab each other. Otonashi, being on the bottom of the ladder, has to climb up first. When he gets to Yuri, he hesitates a moment, claiming that he doesn't know where he should grab onto. Yuri, being rather more concerned with holding up the weight of two people than physical intimacy, tells him to just grab anywhere and hurry. Although, she doesn't give the same grace to Hinata when it's his turn to climb:
Yuri: "HEY! Don't grab me there!" *kick*
Hinata: (falling) "Yoooooouuuuuu biiiiiiiiiiiit-"
Both Aratas from Arata Kangatari are prone to this every now and then. Arata from Amawakuni tends to be complete oblivious about what he's doing or seeing, while Arata Hinohara acts like a typical, awkward teenage boy about it...unless he gets smacked by Kotaha for it.
Popcorn Avatar: Kurando. The other guys in his class all think that he's in a master-slave relationship with Lisa (which is sorta true, but not the way they think) and the girls were all traumatized by his antics when he mentally regressed.
In Rave Master, Haru first meets Elie when he accidentally looks up her skirt while he's crawling under a table. Later, he tries to tell Elie about how he saw a mermaid and realizes too late that she was bathing. Later, he visits her room when she was bedridden with a fever and finds her changing.
In the Zabuza arc of Naruto Sakura is traveling with the bridge builder and a thief is nearby picking people's pockets, he tries to snatch Sakura's bag but ends up grabbing her butt by mistake, she then proceeds to kick his ass.
Subverted and inverted in Ai Yori Aoshi. The events are almost exclusively the fault of the girls, and when Kaoru ends up with another eye- (or face-)full of breasts, almost everyone just laughs it off. Kaoru Is just too nice a guy to be doing that kind of thing - and his Single-Target Sexuality with Aoi helps smooth over the cracks - albeit sometimes to the other girls' disappointment.
It also forms a playful swipe at comedy harem slapstick like that in Love Hina: what would happen if you actually listened to the explanations before punching people in the face?
In the Yaoi Fangirl's corner of the Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle fandom, it's become something of a running gag to have Syaoran walk in on Kurogane and Fai while they're in the midst of sex. Most of this is pure Rule of Funny, since Syaoran is so straight-laced and noble (at least when it comes to sex and Sakura) most of the time.
Another twist the fandom uses sometimes is to have Sakura catch them and either not know what's going on or like it.
Ben has one instance where he accidentally grabs Ren's breast after crashing into her in the Ben 10Fan FicHero High, however due to her not being familiar with earthling sexuality, she doesn't even notice.
This has happened to Harry Dresden of The Dresden Files more than once, e.g. Death Masks. However, the girl used this to pickpocket him.
Surprisingly, a form of this happens in The Bible, in the seventh chapter of the book of Esther. When queen Esther informs the king that Haman is plotting to kill all the Jews in the land (which includes her), the king is so enraged that he steps out into the garden to cool his head. Haman, realizing that he's utterly boned now that the King Xerxes I, ruler of the Persian Empire is angry at him, he stays behind to beg the queen to get the king to spare his life. The king returns just in time to find him falling onto the couch that the queen is reclining on and mistakenly thinks that he's trying to molest the queen while the king is still in the same house. He is...less than pleased with this and has Haman hanged on the gallows that Haman had built to kill his most hated enemy, Esther's uncle, Mordecai. As experts place the authorship of the Book of Esther somewhere in the third or fourth century BCE, it makes this, of all tropes, older than Feudalism.
Film (Live Action)
Mallrats has Silent Bob turning into one of these: each time a Zany Scheme backfires, he ends up in a women's dressing room, where he sees a girl in the process of trying on clothes. And it's always the same girl.
The girl in question, Gwen, is later seen changing in semi-public while talking to Brodie and TS, claiming that it saves him the effort.
In the live-action adaptation of The Grinch, the title character at one point winds up flying face-first into the bosom of his childhood crush. Without removing his head from her chest, he quickly greets her with the words, "Hello, Martha."
Does Jackie Chan do the famed: "Double Hand Accidental Breast Grab" maneuver once per movie, or does it just seem like it?
Variation occurs in The Proposal. Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock Accidentally wind up naked and on top of each other. She was making a nude run for the wardrobe and he was... good at timing (who takes off their clothes, while listening to music, while standing up OUTSIDE?). They're both not looking and walk into each other at a fast pace with the response "Oh my god, why are you naked?" "Why are you wet?!"
In Billy Madison, Billy purposefully initiates such an experience with his teacher Veronica, blaming the accident on a bumpy bus ride. Of course, he's just being a regular pervert.
In the 2009 Star Trek movie, Kirk gets knocked onto Uhura during a fight, and accidentally puts his hands on her breasts to steady himself. He smirks; she pushes him off.
The Korean romantic comedy, Too Beautiful To Life, had a memorable scene that also served to move the entire plot into motion. Yeong-ju, a deceptive fraud who managed to get parole, is sleeping on her train trip back to her sister's wedding. Across from her is Hui-cheol, an innocent village pharmacist preparing to propose to his girlfriend with his deceased mother's ring. A bout of turbulence releases the ring he was holding from his grasp and lands underneath Yeong-ju's feet. Trying to unsuccessfully get the ring under her seat, more turbulence wakes up Yeong-ju in time to notice Hui-cheol rummaging under her skirt. Cue the screaming and angry hitting.
In Run Fat Boy Run, when he first starts working out, Dennis gets a nasty, itchy rash on his crotch that he absolutely has to scratch... as he is at work as a security guard in a lingerie shop. One can guess what this looks like.
In Fierce Creatures Rollo Lee is constantly being being caught by Willa in embarrassing and seemingly lurid situations (such as being caught in a shower with half-dressed and nubile young lady zookeepers, a sheep wandering out of his bedroom, etc). They all have perfectly innocent but very convoluted and unlikely explanations.
Zoo Patron: I can see why they keep him in a cage.
There's Something About Mary: While Ted is in the bathroom waiting for Mary to finish dressing up, he stares at a bird through a window. The bird then flies away, which reveals the half naked Mary through a window on the other side...
The Parole Officer has socially-inept Simon Garden accidently seeing his proto-girlfriend naked after her pet cat shoves the bedroom mirror to the correct position.
Andrew in The Gods Must Be Crazy repeatedly tries to save Kate from animals that attack her, but the animals run off before she notices them and all she sees is Andrew grabbing her while she's undressing.
In Superbad, Even accidentally brushes his crush's breast when someone in the hall bumps into his arm.
Happens to many times to count in Carry On series of movies, often occurring multiple times in a single film. A particular elaborate example happens to Dr Kilmore (Jim Dale) in Carry On Doctor, leaing to his dismissal from the hospital.
In Horrible Bosses, Dale is labeled a sex offender because, late one night, drunk, he unwisely chose a playground close to a bar in which to stop and urinate.
Live Action TV
In Smallville, Escape, Clark ended up with Chloe in his arms and both of them are covered with nothing but a towel. Silver Banshee possessed her and she tried to seduce Clark, only to be transferred away to Lois, resulting in Chloe having no memory of how she got there.
Basil Fawlty became this in one episode of Fawlty Towers, "The Psychiatrist", in which his efforts to prove that one of his guests broke the rules by sneaking his girlfriend into a room lead him into one Not What It Looks Like after another.
Then there's "The Wedding Party", in which Basil is caught once with a female guest and twice with Manuel; Manuel was drunk the first time and had accidentally knocked him over, and Basil mistakes him for a burglar the second time. Meanwhile, Basil accidentally walks in on two of the wedding guests embracing (they're related), and discovers Polly hurrying out of the lovers' room after hearing some weird noises (Polly was trying on one of the girl's dresses; the girl was giving her boyfriend a massage).
In one episode of Las Vegas, Delinda offers to allow a blind man to feel her face so he'll know what she looks like. The blind man in question reaches out at eye level and takes hold of her breast. The man comments "Apparently you're very tall" but makes no effort to remove his hand.
In Degrassi The Next Generation, JT is caught by surprise by the size of Craig's penis, and is caught staring at it like it's some sort of monster. It doesn't go unnoticed by Craig.
There's an episode of Stargate Universe where Chloe is using the Ancient equivalent of a shower when the power goes out. She calls out for Eli, he comes running... and just happens to shine his flashlight on her, getting a full frontal before realization hits and he stutters an apology while looking away. Too bad the camera's positioned behind her.
In the Doctor Who episode "The Beast Below" the Doctor is holding Amy out of the TARDIS by her ankle, looks up her nightdress and laughs. Cue Amy giving him a look.
Also in "A Chistmas Carol" the Doctor acts a bit like a pedo with Kid!Kazran. Old!Kazran is believed to be this by Rory.
In "Closing Time", the Doctor and Craig are checking fitting rooms for anything to do with Cybermen. One of the rooms the Doctor checks has someone changing. Both are rightfully embarassed... Then the Doctor tells the woman she should try her dress in red.
In one episode of The Big Bang Theory, Penny slips in the shower, dislocating her shoulder, and Sheldon has to help her put some clothes on. She insists he do it without looking, which leads to:
Penny: You gotta help me get my arm into the sleeve. Sheldon: Okay. (He feels along her body with his hand, eyes closed, looking for her arm, and suddenly her eyebrows fly upward.) Penny: Is that my arm? Sheldon: It doesn't feel like an arm.... Penny: Then maybe you should let it go.
In Eastenders Billy Mitchell was hazed on the day before his wedding and found himself wearing nothing but his boxers. He tries to ask a woman for some spare clothes, but then her dog tears off his boxers and she calls the police (even though she could clearly see the dog did it).
In the How I Met Your Mother episode "Say Cheese", a flashback involving a picture with Slash reveals that Marshall had been grabbing Barney's ass instead of Lily's all along.
Man Stroke Woman: A man is talking to a woman at a bar and it is going very well. He asks if she would like to go to a party at his house and she say yes. He draws her directions to his home. When he lifts it up it is a picture of a penis, and she leaves disgusted. He looks extremely confused as his friend tells him that he needs to find a better way to his house.
Red Dwarf: Polymorph. When you're writhing on the floor, begging an android with a large tube attached to its crotch to pull off your underwear, it's kind of easy for people to get the wrong idea.
In a silent spot on The Red Skelton Show, Red is wooing a tall woman with a large, and pushed up, bust. Her father, a short, bald man objects. At one point her father arrives and the young woman runs away. Red does not see this because he is bashfully looking the other way. He reaches over to, I guess, take her hand and his hand comes to rest on the guy's bald head. Red panics and pulls his hand away. It's been all these years and I still do not know what the audience at the time was supposed to think. Was he panicking because the father was there, or was he panicking because his hand had come to rest on her partially exposed breast? Given censorship and the subversion of it in comedy, I really do not know.
In Supernatural, Sam's surveillance of Meg causes him to appear like a Peeping Tom when she changes in front of the window in "Shadow", which is lampshaded by Dean and a woman passing by on the street.
Ah-Xuan, Liu Li and Wang He from School Shock had a situation where in the former to were lying on top of each other (with her knee in his crotch and hergun on his chest while the other was lying naked on the floor tied to the chair in a school's storage room. Then a large group of people walks in. With photographic cellphones. It becomes a scandal. And it really wasn't what it looked like.
Mythology
According to one version of the story, the Blind Seer Tiresias received his powers this way. While out for a walk one day he saw Athena bathing in a lake, and she reacted by blinding him. When she realized that he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time and not trying to peep after all, she gave him the power of foresight as an apology.
Video Games
Jin Kazama of Tekken fame became an accidental pervert in one of Tekken 5's many endings. After being rescued by Asuka Kazama from his monstrous great grandfather Jinpachi Mishima and regaining his humanity through some kind of healing touch unintentionally administered by Asuka, he awakens suddenly and thrusts himself forward to get to his feet, but accidentally bumps into Asuka while she was trying to wake him. Naturally she falls on her back and he lands facefirst between her (somewhat ample for a 17 year old...) bosom with an obligatory "boing" sound effect. Much time passes before he stands up, at which point the hot-headed Asuka becomes outraged and punches him into a rock before storming off. This exchange is made quite disturbing when you consider the two are actually cousins, though they might not actually know it.
For completely legitimate and case-related reasons Apollo Justice winds up in possession of two sets of panties, one belonging to a fifteen-year-old girl and the other to a mob boss' wife. The judge is rather disturbed by this.
During a hot spring cutscene in Tales of Symphonia, Zelos attempts to take a peek at the females in the party while they are bathing. Lloyd, being far less of a pervert than Zelos, catches him in the act and loudly tells him to stop. This, of course, causes the girls to march out and 'catch' Lloyd in the act, while Zelos escapes.
Subverted in the OAV when Lloyd trips and falls on top of Collete. Both of them are too innocent to see it as anything other than funny.
Played straight in an optional scene in Tales of Symphonia 2, where Lloyd becomes the accidental pervert again, in an almost identical situation to the first game. It's inverted in a different version of that scene, where Emil decides to go into the hot springs alone, and it's Marta, his main love interest, who peeps in on him and then joins him. He chivalrously tries to resist her advances, but ends up catching the attention of the rest of the party, who naturally dub him a pervert. Both Emil and Marta try to explain, but everyone thinks Marta is just trying to cover for Emil. Of course, only Lloyd truly believes him.
Carried over to Tales of the World, where the girls overhear Chester telling Lloyd about his secret spot with "the best view." Though Lloyd was never given the chance to show if he had any interest in it, he is automatically labeled as a pervert by the girls. The skit ends with him shouting "I was framed!"
Fire Emblem: Awakening has Chrom walking in on a female Avatar naked during their B support, with predictable yet hilarious reactions. This is later gender-inverted when she does the same to him during their A support.
Mega Man Legends, where Mega Man walks in on Roll getting dressed; although Roll doesn't have a different outfit as such. You need to do this at least once, since you have to get something from Roll at that point in the plot. This is also repeated in the sequel, once you get the bathtub.
Puyo Puyo, where the dark wizard Schezo Wegey's desire for power and his frequent lapses of articulation often leave his utterances far from what he intended, leading most of the cast to label him as a pervert, much to his dismay.
Schezo: I want you to give me all of you! Arle: You know, it makes you sound like a pervert when you put it that way.
In Resident Evil 4, if you're in any position to see up Ashley's skirt, accidental or not, she calls you a pervert. Numerous times Leon has been knocked flat on his back by an enemy, his head under her skirt, and she feels it's more important that he saw her underwear rather than the fact that something is trying to kill them at that instant.
In Resonance of Fate, Leanne is taking a bath while Zephyr and Vashyron kick back and watch a little TV. When the power goes out unexpectedly, she screams, and Zephyr bursts in thinking she's been attacked. She slaps him, of course. He swears he didn't see anything, but he later claims to be "good in the dark."
In Summon Night: Swordcraft Story 2, the protagonist accidentally stumbles upon the ninja siblings, Kuuya and Kohina, taking a bath at the Oni Hot Springs:
Aera: I'm not a voyeur! You're exhibitionists!
Kuuya: You idiot! Who bathes in a hot spring with his clothes on!?
Kohina: If you're a Peeping Tom, you should admit it. Be proud of who you are!
At one point in Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc, Rayman's transport fails on him, causing him to fall into a swamp witch's outhouse... while she's using it. She runs out screaming about perverts while Rayman desperately tries to defend himself. When you see her later she tries to kill you, leading to a mini-boss.
A Running Gag in Star Ocean: The Last Hope has Edge accidentally walking in on Reimi when she's in the shower or otherwise "Less then presentable". She, of course, never takes it well, leading to much hilarity. Edge eventually gets tired of this and calls her out it though.
A female example from Devil Survivor 2, in which Makoto repeatedly finds herself walking in on the protagonist while he's supposedly naked, or at least mostly undressed, in the morning. You can call her a pervert for that, even when she finally knocks before entering his room. In an inversion, she's the one who gets flustered by it, while he seems to find it rather funny.
Visual Novels
In Ace Attorney Investigations, case 5, poor Edgeworth ends up with Wendy Oldbag's undershirt as evidence. Franziska takes this the wrong way and promptly whips him.
Maji De Watashi Ni Koi Shinasai has Yamato seeing Chris naked enough times for them to reconsider if there's even a point to make peace, as it would just happen again and ruin said peace.
As a minor plot point for Kanna's route in Yu No Takuya walks in on her just as she finishes showering. While he's embarrassed, the point of the scene is her complete indifference. She simply doesn't care about being seen naked.
In the Sci-fi arc of Dubious Company, Sal becomes an accidental voyeur after she becomes the crew's spaceship which gives her a direct feed of EVERYTHING that happens on the ship. It doesn't stop her from teasing Leeroy though.
Parodied in Tales of MU, when Mackenzie walks in on a fully-clothed Amaranth, who — being a nymph — displays the typical outraged reaction of a human girl caught in a state of undress.
Michael Garcia in The Impossible Man can never get a break with his female employees... except for one subversion in the entire story.
An extreme example from the Adventure Time episode "Blood Under the Skin": In a trial for a quest to gain armor, Finn goes through a swamp with curtains that are all full of people taking showers. Finn was mentally scarred by the sight of old people private parts, and a mother bathing her child called Finn a pervert.
Finn falls victim to this once more in "Marceline's Closet" when he enters Marceline's bathroom just after she removed her clothes to take a bath.
He also has one at the start of Incendium.
It was the plot impetus for The Simpsons episode, "Homer Bad Man." As Homer is driving a babysitter home (who immediately wanted to be dropped off after Homer asked the babysitter to take the wheel so he can scratch himself in two places at once), Homer finds a rare gummi candy (which he stole earlier in the episode during the candy convention) stuck to the seat of the babysitter's pants and peels it off her. What the babysitter sees is Homer drooling as his hand reaches out and grabs her ass. She freaks out and runs...and the next day, rallies a protest group against him, which leads to a media circus over Homer being a pervert who likes to molest college coeds.
And then, the tabloid TV show who interviewed Homer blatantly edited his interview to support these claims.
The King of the Hill episode "Naked Ambition" centers around this. Bobby accidentally sees his cousin Luanne naked during a camping trip (Luanne was in the shower and Bobby walked in on her, thinking the shower was vacant), and when he tells his friend Joseph, Joseph becomes obsessed with getting a look. His attempt to peep causes Bobby's girlfriend Connie to accidentally think they're peeping on her. At the end of the episode, Connie's father also accidentally sees Luanne and when she screams about it, Joseph (who's passing by on his bike) says "Aw man!"
Also happens on the King of the Hill episode "Hank's Dirty Laundry." Hank (who has been accused of renting a porno movie at a video store and not returning it) is given a collection of porno movies by an anonymous source and watches them so he can find clues that will clear his name by proving that the porno he allegedly rented doesn't exist. With the way Hank is hunched over as he watches the film makes Peggy think he's masturbating to it, causing her to freak out and tell Bobby to get out of the house (the original scene was supposed to have the masturbation illusion more explicit by having Hank's pen dry up and Hank shaking the pen, but FOX censors wouldn't allow it. It does appear as an alternate scene on the second season DVD set).
In the Popeye short "A Dream Walking" a sleepwalking Olive walks into a construction site, prompting Popeye and Bluto to keep her safe until she gets home. Eventually Olive makes her way back to her room, but when she sees Popeye looking at her in the window she thinks he's being a Peeping Tomand starts throwing stuff at him.
In the Garfield and Friends episode "Much Ado About Lanolin", when Lanolin falls down the stairs and shows her underwear, Orson smiles.
Real Life
The paparazzi pictures of Hilary Duff accepting her marriage proposal from boyfriend/hockey player Mike Comrie were taken from an odd angle, as they were at an open window several floors above ground level. Hilarity Ensued. See for yourself.
This happens often enough in stores that companies have studied how to prevent it from happening. Customers who do this tend to leave the store quickly without buying anything. quote
In his book “Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping” (2000), Mr. Underhill expounded on the dangers of “butt brushes” (if the aisles are too narrow and people brush up against each other when they pass, they tend to leave the store)
Jeremy Paxman of all people became this in an interview while explaining how hard it can be to interview Boris Johnson. Explaining how Johnson tended to pat him on the arm repeatedly in interviews, he proceeded to miss the hostess' upper arm and immediately apologise.
