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Crashing Through the Harem

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For whatever reason, our young male protagonist is in the middle of a chase scene or bar brawl and crashes straight into a room full of beautiful young women. Depending on the setting, this could be an Arabian Nights-style harem, a bordello, or a girls' locker room, but it will be a private place containing several young women, usually in some state of undress. Expect there to be lots of silk curtains and maybe a bath or shower. They may act offended (going so far as to go after the young male protagonist for intruding or just scream at him and throw stuff) or they may giggle and even flirt with the hero... until their dour chaperone shoves him back into the fray.

Sometimes, the young male protagonist may hide out in the harem, bordello, or girls' locker/shower room in order to escape whoever's chasing him, often dressed in drag, posing as a chaperone/eunuch/locker room guard. They may elude their pursuers by disappearing into a locker, curtained-off room, or in a vent. If the hero is lucky, one (or more) of the women may decide to hide him, which could lead to romantic opportunities...

May overlap with Distracted by the Sexy, Accidental Pervert or both. Can lead to a Crash-Into Hello. For when it's only one girl in a state of undress, see Naked First Impression. May also overlap with Naked People Are Funny and Moment Killer.


Examples

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    Anime & Manga 
  • In Cesare - Il Creatore che ha distrutto, when the titular Cesare Borgia, 16, borrows clothes from his commoner friend Angelo and sneaks off to the local festival with him in that disguise, they end up making someone angry, and in running away, they duck into a curtained-off area that turns out to be the dancers' changing room. This is carried over into the musical, even though the chase aspect isn't.
  • In a One Piece filler episode set in ancient Japan, Zoro (a wandering monk) at one point crashes into a room full of women. One of them kicks him out of there.

    Audio Play 
  • In Le Donjon de Naheulbeuk: L'Orbe de Xaraz, the protagonists crash through the brute-ball cheerleaders' changing room while trying to escape their pursuers.

    Comic Books 
  • The Boys: Wee Hughie and Vas "Love Sausage" are running after the mooks, a chase that leads them through a strip club. As Vas is in his spandex superhero outfit, he is stopped dead in his tracks. "Big titties are my kryptonite" indeed.
  • Cattivik has this happen to him a couple of times, and both times gets savagely beaten for his trouble.
  • Hilariously gender-inverted in an issue of Global Frequency when a traceuse accidentally crashes through the set of a hardcore gay porn film.
    "Arrrgh! Sorry, sorry, not looking, carry on!"
  • In Groo the Wanderer, Groo is forced to be Disguised in Drag to infiltrate a palace and steal the king's ruby. When Groo is first led to the harem full of beautiful naked women, he is overjoyed, saying it's a dream come true to run amok in a place like this - and then helps himself to all the cheese dip he can eat. It then turns out that Groo, despite being as fat and grotesque as ever while dressed like a woman, drives the king mad with lust, and being invited to the private chambers provides Groo a chance to swipe the ruby. In his escape, Groo races back through the harem, leaving the women screaming and diving into the pool in his wake.
  • In the graphic novel Hooky, Spindrifter saves a falling Spider-Man by opening a portal beneath him that opens into one of these. As per his luck and overdeveloped sense of responsibility, he (reluctantly) extracts himself from the amorous women "before (he) really start to enjoy it."
  • ORPHANIMO!!: at the beginning of the first album, Vic, Sharp and Jay Jay do this on purpose in order to escape from a group of angry beach volleybal players that are pursuing them. They run through a changing room where several woman are taking a shower. The 3 kids pass through without trouble, but the women are absolutely not amused about the adult men coming in and make this painfully clear to them.
  • Spider-Man: A more realistic example of this Trope occurs in on of one of Todd McFarlane's filler issues of The Amazing Spider-Man (notable for its cover, a Homage to Action Comics #1) One of Spidey's less formidable villains, Buck Mitty, aka the Humbug, plans to rob an art display on the ESU campus, only to take a wrong turn and bust into the girls' locker room, enacting screams and things thrown at him from the female students, who assume he's some drunk fratboy. As he runs away, Mitty concedes that he never was very familiar with the campus layout, other than the science department, and decides to stick to them when he tries again later. (Unfortunately for him, he messes that up too.)
  • In the first issue of the 1996 series of Teen Titans, Cody sneaks into the Cheyenne Mountain base on a dare. Spotted by guards, he runs away and ends up running into a women's locker room, which is full of young women in various states of undress. He stops and stares at them, assuming that he has run onto a holo-deck. One of the women (who are, of course, all military personnel) then kicks him to the ground.

    Films — Animated 
  • In the animated film 1001 Arabian Nights, Mr. Magoo thinks he's walked into the Sultan's harem, but in reality he just spooked a couple of peacocks.
  • Aladdin: This happens to the title character while he's escaping the guards (after stealing a loaf of bread) and singing "One Jump Ahead".

    Films — Live-Action 
  • In Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, the duo gets knocked through the wall of an Old West tavern… and into the back room, where the Soiled Doves are prancing around in their lingerie. Billy the Kid yanks them away while they're still enjoying the view.
  • The Blues Brothers: The brothers sneak through the window of a ladies' room to get into the Palace Hotel Ballroom for their gig.
  • In the 2022 South Korean action movie Carter, the title character (to escape a bomb blast) does a Super Window Jump into the hot pool of an onsen full of naked women who look stoned out of their minds. Unfortunately the onsen is also full of Yakuza thugs who quickly take offense to his uninvited presence.
  • Commando. Matrix and Cooke are fighting in a hotel, at one point knocking down a connecting door and interrupting a naked teenage couple having sex in the next room.
  • The Enforcer. While chasing a criminal across half the city, Dirty Harry crashes through a skylight onto a bed where some people are filming an amateur porn movie.
  • The finale of Ferris Bueller's Day Off features the title character leaping through several suburban backyards to beat someone else home; after dashing through a yard with two ladies sunbathing, he walks back and introduces himself.
  • Nearly happens in The Living Daylights, but Bond stays on the rooftop. However, it being Tangiers, the harem girls still get to ogle him from where they're sitting.
  • A subversion in Looney Tunes: Back in Action: after Yosemite Sam shoots Daffy with a cannon, Daffy is sent flying straight through the wall of a room where a group of showgirls are getting ready… and then straight through the opposite wall. It's then doubly subverted as he actually flies back through the hole in the wall to complement the dancers before flying back out again.
  • Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior. Max drives a truck through the Marauder encampment, and destroys a tent with two Marauders screwing inside. The look on the woman's face is priceless.
  • Monty Python and the Holy Grail has two related examples.
    • Sir Galahad fights his way through a forest in a storm until he finds Castle Anthrax, which has a Grail-shaped beacon overhead. He bangs on the door, and when it opens he falls inside. He meets several young women, one of whom tells him that the castle contains eight score young blondes and brunettes, all between 16 and 19½. As Sir Galahad escapes from two naughty female doctors, he enters a room filled with the aforementioned eight score young women. Eventually, he decides to stay when the other knights "rescue" him and get him to continue the Grail quest. He then proceeds to call them gay.
  • The Outlaws IS Coming!: While attempting to sabotage the sabotage the outlaws' guns before the big showdown the next day, Larry and Curly Joe accidentally enter the room occupied by a group of showgirls instead. It takes them a surprisingly long time to notice.
  • During one of the chases in Quick, Ki-su rides his bike through the backstage area of a lingerie fashion show, where the models are dressing.
  • In The Radioland Murders, Page boy Billy Bennett accidentally runs into the WBN women's dressing room, with lots of topless women. He is thrown out bodily.
  • Dastan in Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time during the fight scene after his father's funeral.
  • In Road to Morocco, Bob Hope and Bing Crosby try to hide from the evil Kasim by hiding in a harem. Unfortunately, they get found out.
  • A Sailor-Made Man: At one point while fleeing from the Maharajah's goons, Harold crashes through the harem, with the girls scattering in panic.
  • Subverted in The Scorpion King. Unlike other examples, the harem girls steal the protagonist's weapons while they're touching him up.
  • The Suicide Squad. The Squad capture The Thinker when he comes to a gogo bar he regularly visits, but then soldiers enter the bar to conduct a search, so they have to hustle the Thinker at gunpoint out the back via the strippers dressing room. Despite his peril The Thinker has a big grin on his face.
  • In one of The Sweeney movies, the Flying Squad takes a shortcut through a room, interrupting a couple having sex there. When the man threatens to put in a complaint, John Thaw's character shuts him up by asking whether the girl he's with is of legal age.
  • Under the Rainbow (a film starring Chevy Chase and Carrie Fisher about the making of The Wizard of Oz): A Chase Scene goes through a women's dressing room, providing opportunity for some fanservice. One of the little people sticks around rather than continuing the chase.

    Literature 
  • In The Bloody Road to Death by Sven Hassel, Porta and Tiny clamber through a window into a woman's changing room. They don't start screaming until they catch a look at Tiny.
  • Chronicles of the Kencyrath: Invoked by Adriana—she gives Torisen an aphrodisiac that makes him super attractive, and sets him in the women's halls. Deconstructed, because it's a nightmare for him—he's chased by a horde of women who might rape him, and is proposed to by a 7-year-old.
    Those closest had their eyes fixed on Torisen in a way that strongly reminded him of a mouse suddenly thrust into a calamity of cats.
  • Played straight and subverted a few times in the Gor novels. The harem girls are usually slaves, and although a master may be possessive of his possessions, it's generally acknowledged that any free man can use a female slave for his pleasure at any time her master isn't putting her to use (in either a sexual or non-sexual way).
  • Roman private eye Marcus Didius Falco and upper class Helena Justina flee through a brothel while being chased by villains in The Silver Pigs. They regard this as Actually Pretty Funny, and Falco shocks his Friend on the Force in a later book with the tale.
  • Tales of the Ketty Jay. Subverted in Retribution Falls when Captain Frey nearly gets his head blown off by a shotgun doing this trope, until he convinces the Paid Harem that he's come for an unfriendly word with their boss and has no intention of coming inside their boudoir. Later he has to infiltrate a religious hermitage and has fantasies of being raped by the sex-starved women inside. This doesn't happen of course, and the women are the wrong age or too homely for his taste, but he does find his Old Flame who was Locked Away in a Monastery and, after convincing her he's been searching for her all this time, she ends up tearing off his clothes to have sex, causing Frey to think that at least one part of his fantasy is coming true.
  • The Super Cops Play It To A Bust by David Greenberg. The two police officers who are the eponymous Super Cops come across a man in a threesome and for laughs shout, "Police!" His only response is to ask them to wait because he's just about to get off. Later they have a Floorboard Failure and end up falling onto this same threesome, without interrupting events much then either.

    Live Action TV 
  • Invoked and Parodied in Batman (1966) when Catwoman deliberately runs into a women's changing room, knowing that Batman and Robin, being paragons of virtue, dare not intrude on "this most hallowed and forbidden no man's land". The Dynamic Duo can only bring themselves to continue the pursuit by keeping their eyes closed the entire time ... at least until one of the women in the room mentions that they're all fully clothed.
  • Invoked in The Professionals when a detective friend of Doyle times a narcotics bust at a strip club so he'll be in the dressing room when the girls come offstage.
  • Lampshaded in Star Trek: Voyager in The Adventures of Captain Proton, a Flash Gordon-expy holodeck program. While sneaking into the Supervillain Lair, it's part of the program that the players come across a harem of slave-girls and free them from the clutches of the Big Bad.

    Pinball 
  • In Tales of the Arabian Nights, a random bounce from the jet bumpers could send the ball through a small opening into the Harem; this scores a "Harem Sneak-In", complete with giggling women.

    Theatre 
  • In Sheikh, Rattle and Roll, Prince Araby, Sinbad, Ali Baba and the Faulty Thieves flee from the palace guards and find themselves in the harem. They are immediately swarmed by the man-starved harem girls.

    Video Games 
  • In Another World (Out of This World), the final level begins with Lester splashing down in a pool of alien women after ejecting from the tank in the previous level.
  • In God of War II, your escape from the Colossus of Rhodes's rampage takes you crashing through the ceiling of a bathhouse where two women wait in a state of undress. You can stop and have sex with them.
  • In Quest for Glory II: Trial by Fire, the thief hero character infiltrates the villain's palace through his harem. This results in an amusing cutscene where the harem girls actively attempt to conceal and sneak the thief past the eunuch guards, using their own bodies to conceal him from view. Many of the girls are enamored by his exotic European features, and overtly flirt with him.
  • In Spider-Man (2000), during the chase level with Venom, an in-game cutscene has Spidey chase the villain through an office building, with only voice-over dialogue implying what's happening inside. If the player has put in the special "What If?" code, the voice-over changes the implied office complex into a gym, including a brief encounter in the ladies' locker room.
    Venom: Lady, put a towel on!
    Spider-Man: Whoa, sor- um, ah, m-my eyes are closed!
  • One of the cutscenes that could play before a match on the 24/7 Mode on WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2008 had whichever wrestler you had picked as your Player Character stumble into the Divas' locker room.

    Web Original 
  • The official music video for Bad Motherfucker by rock band Biting Elbows and directed by Ilya Naishuller has the protagonist pursuing his target and ends up crash-landing face-view into a couple of Russian ladies sunbathing.

    Western Animation 
  • The Beatles: In "The Word", the lads crash into a harem tent, courtesy of an out-of-control camel. They promptly get in huge trouble for looking at the girls' unveiled faces, and have to sing their way out, all the while flirting with the girls.
  • Happens in the Bugs Bunny short A-Lad-In His Lamp.
    Bugs: [rushes into a room, screams are heard, he rushes out and closes the door] Err, um… Hare-em, I think.
    Genie: [opens the door and looks in, to more screams] Oh that was a harem all right. I know a harem when I see one.
  • Spoofed in Futurama. While Bender fights his good twin Flexo at a beauty pageant, the two of them crash through a wall into a dressing room full of contestants. A 10 foot Amazon picks both robots up, roars "WOMEN ONLY ROOM!" in a deep voice, and hurls them out of the room.
    • For context, Bender (and presumably Flexo) weighs a minimum of 525 pounds, but he's stated as weighing as much as 2200 pounds. The Amazon lifts each of them, one-handed, and throws them.

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