Helping Another Save Face

Mordecai: Okay, so I accidentally recorded this message on a girl, Margaret's, phone.
Rigby: Yeah, and we were just trying to delete it before she heard it!
Spool of Thread: But why not let this person hear the message?
Rigby: Because he'll die of embarrassment!

— Regular Show, "Butt Dial"

Social situations, workplace etiquette, and interpersonal relationships are rife with opportunities for people to embarrass themselves. And then there are people who will seek to deliberately embarrass someone else.

Enter a savior, sometimes a friend, sometimes a stranger, who steps in to mitigate or alleviate the source of embarrassment, sometimes before someone even has time to be embarrassed or by flipping it on an aggressor, often an Alpha Bitch.

Their motives may vary. They could be trying to protect a family member or save The Ingenue from embarrassment. They could be sympathetic, having experienced something like it themselves. They may simply see the offense as a non-issue and feel others are treating it as a Felony Misdemeanor.

In some cases, they may even cover, taking the blame themselves. Can happen in an Embarrassment Plot. Related to Speaking Up for Another.

Often leads to Heartwarming Moments.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Chapter 64 of Kaguya-sama: Love Is War has Kashiwagi cover for Kaguya during a talk about true love when Fujiwara tries to join the conversation. Kaguya even innocently comments that she was was the one who was asking for advice, only to be cut off.
  Kashiwagi: Just be quiet! Don't let my shame be for nothing!
• My Love Story!!: When attempting to set up Rinko and Suna as a couple (not knowing Rinko loved him) Takeo tells her about all the times Suna helped him, such as when Takeo had accidentally peed himself, and Suna laughed, but Suna also grabbed a bucket of water and doused the both of them so that no one would know.

Fan Works

• Inter Nos: Nao and Natsuki are Vitriolic Best Buds, and in an attempt to embarrass Natsuki, who prefers Lactose over Liquor, Nao pours her a full cup of undiluted wine while proposing a toast. Shizuru, Nao's General and Natsuki's lover, to save Natsuki from embarrassment, feigns a parched throat and downs half the cup. Nao makes it clear she knew what Shizuru was doing, but wisely refrains from further antagonism.
• In the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fanfic A Pot of Silver, Diamond Tiara has a Potty Emergency due to candy disagreeing with her and has to use her friend Silver Spoon's chamber pot. To prevent embarrassment, Silver Spoon claims she had to use the chamber pot.
• Spy X Family: In this (fandubbed) fan-comic originally by artist Nanagi, Twilight and several WISE agents discuss their next move after they failed to make Donovan Desmond stop his plans to restart the Westalis-Ostania War, and who escaped after leaving, the now teen-aged, Damian behind. Anya is brought in to WISE H.Q. To talk to Damian, and when she enters the room he's in, he tells her he has not valuable information to give them, and yells at her to yells at her to leave him alone since no one wants him anyway. Anya starts to cry and calls Damian an idiot for pretending to not care about anything, but she knows he's devastated because he worked so hard to excel in school so that Donovan would acknowledge him, and even love him, only for Donovan to cast him aside as collateral when the situation called for it. Damian breaks down and tearfully holds onto Anya, saying he'll never let her go since she's the only person who's shown him any affection. Anya and Damian come out of the room, and Damian gets a drink of water, and when Twilight notices Anya's chest is wet, she figures Damian doesn't want to be embarrassed by people knowing he was crying, so she proudly proclaims "it's Sy-On Boy's saliva!" Which makes Damian choke on his water and for Twilight's Loid Forger persona to wonder what exactly were they doing in that room.

Film — Animation

• Beauty and the Beast: When Beast realizes his bestial eating habits are disturbing Belle, he attempts to use a spoon Chip offers him, but without much success. Realizing he's making a genuine effort, Belle meets him halfway by picking up her bowl and sipping from the rim, which he is able to do.
• Monsters, Inc.: Mike is about to go on his romantic dinner date with Celia when he realizes he forgot to file his paperwork. He's about to explain to Celia why he can't take her to dinner when Sulley says that Mike was reminding him to get his paperwork. Along with saving Mike's date, this also leads to Sulley meeting Boo, which starts up the plot.

Film — Live-Action

• Lethal Weapon 3: When Roger accidentally discharges his gun in the precinct locker room, Riggs immediately begins slamming lockers around to act as though he were the source of the noise.
• Pretty Woman:
  • Vivian, at dinner with the heads of the company Edward is targeting, makes a faux pas by comparing oysters to snot. James Morse, the kindly old man who runs the company, gently agrees with her.
  • After watching La Traviata in the opera house sharing a box with an elderly couple, when asked her opinion on the performance, Vivian excitedly announces that she almost peed her pants. Her companion Edward covers for her, telling the couple she actually said it reminded her of Pirates of Penzance.
• In A Star Is Born (1954), Norman and Esther meet when Norman drunkenly stumbles onto a stage where Esther's band is performing, and Esther dances with him as if it's all part of the show.
• Secondhand Lions: Word of God is that this is done mutually between the Brothers McCann and Walter when they try to get him to return to their farm. They tell him that they have better maps than the one he's using at the farm, and since, as Hub notes, Walter irritates the relatives seeking their money to no end, Walter offers to stay long enough to annoy the hangers-on into leaving. This allows Walter to return without it looking like he was upset about his mother, and without the McCann brothers looking like they missed his company.

Literature

• Diary of a Wimpy Kid: After Rowley is forced by a group of older bullies to eat "The Cheese" (a piece of moldy cheese on the playground that became infamous at the school), students are suspicious of where it went. Wanting to save his friend the humiliation of what happened (as well as try and rekindle the friendship), Greg claims that he got sick of the Cheese and threw it away, causing the students to be grossed out by him instead of Rowley.
  • In the film adaptation, the students are aware that the Cheese has been partially eaten and begin to turn on Rowley until Greg steps in and claims he ate it, once again directing the embarrassment towards himself instead of his friend.
• In Junie B. Jones is a Graduation Girl, Junie B. accidentally stains her graduation robes with grape juice and tries to cover it up by coloring spots on the robes with markers. Jim initially mocks her, but after she runs out crying, he talks the class into coloring spots on their own robes so that Junie B. won't stand out.
• In *Le Mauvais génie* of the Countess of Segur, Mr. Georgey hides the fact Fréderic stole money from the family's safe by saying he wanted to take the money belonging to Julien to buy him gifts. As he told Fréderic afterwards, it was to make sure Fréderic's parents aren't shamed as the parent of a thief.

Live-Action TV

• Babylon 5: Helping another save face is one of the few situations where Minbari culture allows one to lie. Seen most obviously in "The Quality of Mercy", when Centauri Ambassador Londo Mollari is caught cheating at cards with his prehensile genitals leading to a bar brawl, a Minbari, Lennier is willing to take the blame for the fight. Which gets a Call-Back in "There All The Honor Lies" when commander Sheridan is accused of murdering a Minbari warrior and Londo mentions that a Minbari once lied to preserve his honor.
• CSI: NY: During Mac's speech aphasia arc (he can't recall names of certain everyday things due to lack of oxygen to the brain after being shot and Left for Dead), Lindsay falls victim to an Eyepiece Prank; namely, someone put dye on a microscope which resulted in rings around her eyes. She pops into Mac's office wearing dark shades while his girlfriend Christine is there. Christine gives a quizzical look, Lindsay pulls off the glasses and says she got "punked". Mac attempts to explain:
  Mac: Someone dyed her eyes...
  Christine: [realizing he's drawing a blank, she tries to cover for him] Blue! I see!
• Firefly: "Shindig", when a wealthy Alpha Bitch demeans Kaylee, one of the older gentlemen there turns it back on her.
  What a vision you are in your fine dress, it must have taken a dozen slaves a dozen days to get you into that getup. 'Course, your daddy tells me it takes the space of a schoolboy's wink to get you out of it again.
• M*A*S*H: Hawkeye and Trapper (later BJ) did this for Frank a few times.
  • In the episode "Sniper", Hawkeye finds Frank cowering when the camp is pinned down by the titular sniper. When Frank asks Hawkeye what he intends to tell Margaret, Hawkeye tells him that if they're both lucky, he won't run into her.
  • In the episode "Hey, Doc", the 4077 gets a tank on loan. Frank, deciding to impress Margaret, takes it for a joy ride and destroys part of the camp in the process. When he finally stops it, Hawkeye and BJ cover for him...to blackmail him.
• In an episode of Scrubs, JD knocks himself out while trying to show off during a basketball game. Turk lies down next to him on the ground so that people will think they're just chilling.
• Star Trek
  • Star Trek: The Original Series:
    • "This Side of Paradise" After Kirk deliberately provokes Spock to anger to kill alien spores manipulating him. Spock says that striking a fellow officer is a court martial offense. It's clear Spock is embarrassed by his emotional behavior, no matter how involuntary. Kirk reasons, logically as Spock notes, that if they're both in the brig no one can build the device needed to free the rest of the crew.
    • "Amok Time" has Spock in the grip of blood fever during a bout of pon farr. Spock explains the situation to Kirk and McCoy, who both tell him that they'll never tell another soul about the private information he's divulged to them. This is especially poignant for the Doctor, as he and Spock are Vitriolic Best Buds, and it would be easy for him to mock Spock over it, but he never does.
  • Star Trek: The Next Generation: In one of her more generous gestures, in "Up The Long Ladder", after Worf passed out on duty from a childhood malady he considers embarrassing, Dr. Pulaski covers for Worf by telling Picard that it was due to ritual fasting.

Web Animation

• Red vs. Blue: In the first episode of Revelation, Sarge orders for Grif to bury all of the body's of CT's crew. However, when Grif returns to where they piled all the bodies, he can't find them due to the wind blowing all the dessert sand over them and covering them. Tucker points out to Grif that just means his job was done for him, and when Sarge arrives to check on Grif, Tucker helps cover for him by assuring Sarge that Grif already buried all the bodies.

Webcomics

• The Order of the Stick: When Elan is kidnapped by a bandit clan, Roy initially refuses to help the rest of the party rescue him (since he sees Elan as The Load), and only joins the rescue much later after having a Heel Realization moment. Elan notices this and asks Roy about it after the rescue is over. Roy struggles to come up with a response so Haley lies to Elan that Roy came up with a complex rescue plan and the party's first rescue attempt was only to distract the bandits so Roy could enact the real rescue. Fortunately, Elan buys it.
• Sleepless Domain: Rue's mother already dislikes her daughter going out fighting monsters, so she's even more upset when she comes back late. Zoe pretends that Rue helped her so Rue doesn't have to find an excuse to hide the fact that she's late because she almost got killed, if not for Zoe's timely rescue.

Western Animation

• Daria:
  • "It Happened One Nut": Trent spots Daria working her new job selling nuts in the mall and convinces the other members of Mystic Spiral to look for a snack elsewhere so that Daria won't be embarrassed being seen by people she knows.
  • "Just Add Water": When a model who asked Quinn out on a date fails to show, Daria covers for Quinn by telling the Fashion Club that he'd called to say he was working late (which ironically turns out to be true later).
  • "Mart of Darkness": A box store employee who has been ducking Daria and Jane all episode long is revealed to be Andrea, who frets that the duo will now mock the goth girl whose parents forced her to get a job. Daria and Jane promise not to say anything to anyone, as all they wanted was to find the gummy bears.
• Kaeloo: In Episode 213, a rumor goes around that Mr. Cat, a Card-Carrying Villain, has undergone a Heel–Face Turn, which he considers embarrassing. Pretty, having recently undergone an actual Heel–Face Turn and having become a nicer person, attempts to help him set the rumor straight by telling the crowd that the rumor is untrue.
• The Loud House: In "Sleuth or Consequences", Lucy reveals that she was the one who clogged the toilet with a book she's embarrassed about reading since it's Sickeningly Sweet. Her brother Lincoln prevents their other sisters from mocking her for it by pretending it's his book.
• Martha Speaks: In "Alice Covers Up", Alice accidentally applies too much orange sunblock and ends up dyeing her skin orange. However, it won't have time to wear off before the day of a pool party, so she doesn't want to go because she'll stick out with her orange skin. To ease her shame, Alice's friends dye themselves orange at the party too so she won't stick out.
• Tiny Toon Adventures:
  • In "Prom-ise Her Anything", Buster Bunny decides to copy the dance done by Bugs Bunny in "Hot Cross Bunny" (one of the original Looney Tunes shorts), in an attempt to hide the fact he doesn't know how to dance. When he actually performs the dance during the prom, however, everyone stares at him and his date Babs is aghast and embarrassed. Luckily, Bugs steps in and performs the dance too, leading the others to think Buster has just begun a new dance craze and getting them to join in too.
  • In "Henny Youngman Day", Babs Bunny signs up to do stand-up comedy. She ends up suffering from Performance Anxiety due to having to go after an Expy of Robin Williams. Realizing they messed up by not having him be the closing act, he returns to the stage to perform a doubles act with Babs, winning the audience over and restoring her confidence.
• In the Transformers: Animated episode "Return of the Headmaster", Sentinel is decapitated (which isn't fatal because he's a Cybertronian) by the Headmaster, who steals his now headless body. Sentinel practically begs Optimus to cover for him, as if the other Autobots found out (especially Ultra Magnus), it could ruin his entire career. Optimus, despite having every reason not to, helps Sentinel and covers for him when Ultra Magnus asks about the incident.
  • This same trope was averted by Sentinel earlier in the series, as he could have done the same for Optimus and prevented him from having his career destroyed, but said nothing. Optimus points this out.
• What If?: Toward the end of "What If... Thor Were an Only Child?", Captain Marvel drops by to deliver a tablet of "study materials" to Thor to help him sell his "cultural exchange group" story to Frigga.
• What's with Andy?: In "101 Underpants", Andy sells belts that are designed to pants the wearer at a specific time. However, when his crush Lori buys a belt, he hurries to prevent her pants from falling.
  Andy: "I must save Lori's pants!"

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