Somebody has said or done something that bothers someone else. In retaliation, that person will toss a drink at them, pour something over their head or launch a solid piece of food.
Can be considered the supertrope of Food Fight, although when done by adults a fight usually won't break out, outside of comedies (or westerns).
Compare Edible Ammunition, Pie in the Face, Tantrum Throwing. Edible Bludgeon is the more extreme version of this.
Jack splashes a glass of water at Oswald in Pandora Hearts when the latterbluntly tells the former that he is impossible to read and thus untrustworthy. Jack becomes extremely embarrassed after doing this this, however.
Films — Animated
In Disney's Aladdin, Jasmine throws a glass of wine in Jafar's face.
In Cocktail, Tom Cruise's character goes to the restaurant Jordan works at, and she responds by offering him the "Daily Special" - right on his lap.
In Hitch, after Sara finds out who Hitch really is, they argue and one of them throws a small piece of food at the other. He ends up tossing a salad on her.
The title character of Leonard Part 6 ends up wearing most of the meal when he dines with his estranged wife - both times.
In Freaks, a dwarf gets the remainder of a punchbowl thrown at him after offering it in the famous "One of us" chant.
Played for Drama in a 1985 Filipino movie where a jealous actress splashes water right in front of the heroine's face, added with the most remarkable line in Filipino film history, "You're nothing but a second-rate, trying-hard, copycat!"
Then in a later scene, the heroine food slaps her rival right in public as an act of revenge, added with the line, "A manos!"
In Sherlock Holmes, Sherlock implies that Mary is only in a relationship with Watson for his money, she pours a drink on him.
In Diary of a Mad Black Woman, Helen eats a salad in front of Charles, knowing he can't get food for himself, and when she is almost done throws the plate at him.
In Madea's Family Reunion, Lisa throws a plate of hot grits into her abusive husband's face before beating the shit out of him with a frying pan.
The Other Guys, when Terry loses the battle of wits with Allen, he plays his trump card: throwing a coffee over him.
Literature
Ayu in Deep Love pours hot coffee over Keiko, the girl who organised Reina's rape along with stabbing her in the leg.
Pretty Little Liars: Ben spills his drink on Emily after finding out she cheated on him with Maya.
Live Action TV
Samantha Jones, in an episode of Sex and the City, dresses in her finest and heads off to meet Richard, who's sitting at a table in very nice restaurant, waiting for her. As Samantha approaches him, he smiles and tells her how great she looks. She gives him a big smile back, tosses a drink in his face, turns on a dime, and triumphantly walks away.
On Happy Days, Chachi found himself eating in the kitchen (as there were not enough seats in the dining room). Richie has become mad at Chachi, and when Chachi asks for a roll, Richie throws it at him really hard. Chachi announces that he'll get his own gravy.
On Friends, Joey has a Loony Fan who thinks he's his Days of Our Lives character, Dr. Drake Ramoray. When she gets angry at Ramoray and goes after Joey, the others save him by convincing her that he's actually Drake's Evil Twin, and splash glasses of water at him for various offences, most famously leaving the toilet seat up.
On Everybody Loves Raymond, Ray and Debra are eating ice-cream when Ray brags about how he got a higher score than Debra in an IQ test. Debra responds by dumping the ice-cream bowl on his crotch.
In The Goodies and the Bean Stalk, Bill has gone to sell the beloved trandem — however, it's rated as worthless by the bike buyers, who jokingly buy it for a tin of beans. When he comes back, Tim and Graeme inspect it, surprisingly calm, before pouring all the beans over Bill's head.
Also, in "Punky Business", Graeme has gotten to work as a waiter in a punk restaurant. When Tim orders the sauce, he gets it all over his head.
Also also, in "Black And White Beauty", there's a literal food slap. Exposition: Graeme's running a place that takes care of old animals. Bill, after watching some of their behavior (nothing), starts doubting that they're alive. Bill watches a very unmoving cat, then this ensues:
Bill: Alright, Graeme. (produces a fish) I want to see that cat eat that kipper.
(nothing happens)
Graeme: Er—yes—oh, look! (points) The hamster's doing a handstand!
(Tim and Bill look away for a bit — when they look back, the kipper bone is sticking out of Graeme's mouth. Tim slowly pulls it out)
Graeme: Er...(turns to the cat) I'm sorry, Kenneth, I was just so—(Tim slaps him with the kipper)
Glee has the running gag of slushies to the face. It's mostly Played for Laughs, until Sebastian puts rock salt in a slushie, and Blaine gets it in his face.
Abed receives a drink in his face in the Mixology Certification episode of Community after he (kinda) leads on another man who was clearly attracted to him, so he could talk about Farscape.
In one of their first conversations, Doggett manages to anger Scully into throwing her cup of water in his face.
A Kids in the Hall sketch had Dave Foley and Kevin Mac Donald as two ladies' men who fondly reminisce together on all the women who have thrown drinks in their faces.
Drinks to the face are an occupational hazard for Barney Stinson in How I Met Your Mother. "Eventually, you'll be able to anticipate it, and when you do... free drink!"
Eileen throwing a drink in her ex-husband Jerry's face becomes a Running Gag in Smash.
Carmela is about to throw a glass at Tony's face when he is making a confession. Subverted as soon as she hears the topic is the start of his therapy.
Junior breaks up with his talkative girlfriend with a dramatic Pie in the Face. A shoutout to The Public Enemy
An enraged Gloria Trillo throws a steak against Tony.
Life With Boys: In "Wrestling with Boys", the two girls Gabe is two-timing both show up on his doorstep at the same time. When he can't remember their names, they toss their drinks in his face.
On an episode of Cheers, Sam throws a drink in Frasier's face. He blinks, and says, "Crème de menthe, Sam? You couldn't find a nice chablis?"
The X-Files, "Within": Dana Scully tosses water on Agent Doggett when they first meet. Doggett is assigned as a task force leader to find missing Agent Mulder. He tries to find out some information on him from Scully, Mulder's partner of seven years. He doesn't introduce himself and messes with her, telling her some fake or very old Bureau's gossip that Mulder never trusted her and might have had secrets. He also hands her a cup of water. She figures out who he is and what he's trying to do, and that earns him splashing of the water in his face.
Conversed: Ted meets Robin at his favourite bar, and it's one-way Love at First Sight. Robin likes him too, but she says she's with friends; one of whom has just been dumped, so every guy is an enemy. They joke about how women in movies spill their drinks in men's faces in cases like this, and that it always looks like great fun.
Invoked: Ted suggests to Robin that she can do it to him to impress her broken-hearted, now-man-hating friend. She promptly spills her drink in his face, smiles and says that it really was fun.
Newspaper Comics
In a FoxTrot arc centered on Roger attending his college reunion, one strip opens with a woman confirming that he's Roger Fox, from the Delta Theta fraternity, at which point she says "After all these years, I can't believe I found you!" ...And then promptly throws her drink in his face, calling him a pig. And as this is happening, another woman walks up, asking "Roger Fox?"
Ace Attorney: Godot has thrown his coffee at Phoenix Wright three times. In the middle of court!
Kisetsu o Dakishimete, the second game in the Yarudora series, has Tomoko throwing a plate full of sweets to the protagonist's face in the "Four Seasons" Café sequence, if you choose to surprise her and do a "Who is it?" hands-covering-eyes game (instead of calling her from afar), making her think it was a random pervert's doing. Especially ironic, since she loves to play that game on the protagonist herself.
Western Animation
Greedy throws food at Brainy to get him to shut up about critiquing his cooking in The Smurfs episode "Gingerbread Smurfs".
The Looney Tunes Show: Daffy remembers doing this to Porky at high school by pushing a plate of cake into his face. As it turns out, it was actually Big Man on Campus Porky who pushed the cake into Daffy's face.
Blueblood: Stay back! I just had myself groomed! Rarity: Afraid to get dirty?!
Real Life
February 4th (2010) Lindsay Lohan went to see her ex, Samantha Ronson spin at Crown Bar in West Hollywood. It was reported that "Lindsay was trying to get Sam's attention, but Sam was working and apparently ignored her...Lindsay began 'dirty dancing' with a girl in front of Sam, who then became infuriated and called Lindsay 'a disgrace," after which Lindsay picked up a drink and threw it straight in Sam's face."
