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I Didn't Mean to Turn You On

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Oh Akko, you tease!

"You read me wrong.
I wasn't trying to lead you on,
Not like you think.
I didn't mean to turn you on."

Alice has a huge crush on Bob. Now all of a sudden, it seems that everything Bob does or says lately comes with a free Double Entendre.

Alice always seems to be right behind him whenever he bends over to pick something up or having him around to help rearrange things in the garage always seems to bring them uncomfortably close together, which nowadays, is anything within five feet. And she's nearly forming puddles at her feet (from SWEAT, gutterbrain!) when he helps her with her backswing.

Alice would probably love to do nothing more than jump Bob right then and there, but she can't. She may already be married (and she doesn't want to cheat), or maybe Bob is, or maybe they've been Like Brother and Sister all their lives. Or it could just be that she's too shy to speak or act on her feelings, or she wants to take it slow and all this lust is speeding up things too fast for her, or they're in public, or maybe Bob's too young or old for her, or any combination of the above or more.

And the most infuriating thing is, Bob is totally unaware of these feelings he's stirring up inside of her. Or Bob may secretly feel the same way, but he has the same problems with self-expression. It takes a special talent for a Twice Shy couple to both be doing this to each other, but stranger things have happened.

For those around the Head-Turning Beauty or the Chick Magnet, this might be called "Tuesday."

Compare with Stupid Sexy Flanders, which is when this is happening to a character who doesn't want to be turned on. Headbutt Thermometer is usually a subcase of this. Imagined Innuendo may be the cause.

If Half Human Hybrids, Beast Men, or a Cute Monster Girl is involved, Fantastic Arousal often occurs.

Compare to Clueless Chick-Magnet, Master of the Mixed Message, Accidental Pornomancer.

The trope title comes from Cherelle's 1984 R&B hit of the same name. Its video features a breakdancing King Kong. Covers of the song have been done by Robert Palmer and Mariah Carey.


Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Anime & Manga 
  • In chapter 200 of Ah! My Goddess, in which the personification of a dimensional gate asks Keichi to unlock her with a very big key. Various other characters comment on what their dialogue sounds like.
  • In Akame ga Kill!, Tatsumi has gained the interest of numerous female characters, including his own teammates, due to his overly kind, sincere attitude.
  • Whenever Train from Black Cat kills or is about to kill someone, an unfortunate byproduct is Creed getting incredibly aroused. When Creed starts displaying his… *ahem* happiness more openly, Train gets very disturbed.
    • It's especially weird in the anime-Train smashes Creed's, er, sword with his gun, and Creed lies there mumbling, "That's it… it's shocking…" with tears in his eyes. Train seems incredibly creeped out by this response.
  • Buso Renkin: Kazuki has a tendency to unintentionally get Tokiko burst out in a Luminescent Blush, such as when he hugged her protectively while giving his In the Name of the Moon without his shirt, or in the episode when he touches her scar.
  • The Dangers in My Heart: Quite often in early chapters, Yamada unknowingly sends Ichikawa on a trip to the bathroom after he makes too much close contact with her. She also has a habit of saying something tease worthy to him without even realizing it.
    • Sometimes it goes both ways. While the two are studying in the library, Ichikawa notices a piece of candy that Yamada left in the open when the librarian walks into the room. Fearing she'll get banned from the library for bringing food in, Ichikawa whispers close into her ear for her to hide the candy. Then Yamada's whole face turns red, and she bangs her head against a window from jumping out of her chair.
  • Genkaku from Deadman Wonderland gets incredibly turned on by Nagi killing people, including an instance where it's made obvious he gets a hard-on from Nagi crushing some poor guy's skull.
  • One bonus chapter of Fairy Tail has Mira put the idea in Lucy's head that Natsu may like her. Suddenly the fact that Natsu has No Sense of Personal Space (to the point of frequently entering Lucy's house without permission) stops being something annoying her friend does because he doesn't totally get social norms and becomes proof that he really does have a crush on her.
  • In Full Metal Panic!, Sousuke might as well be called a human aphrodisiac. This trope is such a common occurrence with Sousuke, with him not even realizing that he's doing something to make his admirers' hearts beat faster. It most commonly occurs with Kaname (including an instance where he accidentally touched her breast, which resulted in her getting really turned on, an instance where she misunderstood that he was going to kiss her, an instance where she misunderstood his proposition to her as wanting to have sex with her, and an instance where she got turned on seeing him asleep, and had a hard time resisting not kissing his soft lips while he was asleep). He tends to have this effect on Tessa, during the fewer times when he interacts with her, as well. And during Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu, his admirer Ena Saeki confesses that watching him work so diligently "made her heart beat out of her chest" (though the things he was working diligently on were planting land mines in the school). And then there's how he accidentally managed to turn Gauron on immensely during their first meeting when Sousuke was twelve... simply by Sousuke killing soldiers and looking at Gauron with his "beautiful" eyes. Which had disastrous results for Sousuke in the long run. Later, it's even revealed that Sousuke unknowingly turned Gauron on yet again, as Gauron reveals to him that during their fight in Khanka, he was so pleased that Sousuke still had such beautiful eyes, and he "really wanted to fuck him up the ass."
    • Kaname manages to do this to Sousuke while giving him his Intimate Haircut when she tells him to hold still while she cuts his fringe and he finds himself staring directly down her shirt. While he (mostly) manages to quietly maintain his composure, he feels ashamed at appreciating the view and immediately averts his eyes "as if he'd stared at the sun" once he's free to move. Kaname, for her part, either didn't notice or didn't mind.
  • As seen above, in the earlier chapters of Girl Friends (2006), Akko does this quite often to poor Mari. Of course, Akko might have acted subconsciously.
  • Hayate the Combat Butler's title character does this all the time to Nagi. Also to the other girls in his Unwanted Harem. Hell, an entire chapter was devoted to him unwittingly doing this to various female classmates.
  • Hetalia: Axis Powers:
    • The Italy brothers have curls that act as erogenous zones. Germany is shown pulling on Italy's more than once without having the slightest idea of the reaction it causes. Given their status as Official Couple, this is to be expected.
    • Spain with Romano. At one point he pulls on Romano's curl to get his attention, not knowing that it only serves to make Romano more distracted. Romano immediately freaks out thinking that Spain is a pervert.
  • This trope is the ever-present peril of Karin. At least the first dozen chapters or so.
  • Kase and Yamada of Kase-san are that special kind of Twice Shy that are both doing this to one another. In Kase's case, it's sometimes deliberate Hint Dropping, but Yamada just really is that awkward.
  • In episode 5 of Macross Frontier, Alto and Sheryl wind up hiding together in a single locker of the men's locker room—positioned so that their legs are intermingling and Sheryl's… ''*ahem* '' is brushing up against Alto's hip. Unintentionally intimate enough as it is already, Alto's phone goes off… and it's on vibrate. Thank God that Sheryl is a practitioner of The Modest Orgasm.
  • Maken-ki!: In the manga, Aki is acutely aware of how the male students think of her and is shown to be uncomfortable with it. Which is why she had to correct herself on a poor choice of words with Kai. And, in chapter 38, she was put-off by Takeru oiling her up, but would've gone through with it as part of a deal. Fortunately, she didn't have to since Celia dragged him off.
  • In Midori Days, Seiji unknowingly turns Kouta on a lot when he sucks Kouta's injured finger. It's all enough to make Midori feel very uneasy...
  • Nozaki of Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun has moments when he acts quite boyfriend-like with Sakura (much to her delight) without him meaning to be or realizing the effect he has on her.
  • In chapter 190 in Negima! Magister Negi Magi, Negi winds up Chachamaru in order to keep her going. Chachamaru normally finds this mildly pleasurable when done by someone who knows what they're doing. When Negi does it, he winds the key too hard and pumps way too much magic into it, and Chachamaru has to clamp her hands over her mouth to keep from screaming in pleasure. Completely oblivious to what just happened, Negi then promises to wind her up every day, as long as she needs him to. Considering the obvious subtext, Evangeline's oft-repeated threats to "wind her up" from earlier on in the series — complete with Chachamaru begging "not too hard, please" — suddenly become a lot funnier. The winding thing comes up again later when Asakura realizes the implications. Naturally, she takes it a bit too far. Chapter 263 takes the "winding" into overdrive. Poor Chachamaru.
  • Omamori Himari offers a strange example: Ageha bites Yuuto's neck and drinks his blood. Next frame, we see Ageha panting in pleasure, fondling her own breasts with one hand and trying desperately to not put the other one between her legs and satisfy herself. Or rape him right there, for that matter. And Yuuto? Unconscious on the floor. Seems his blood is waaaaay too delicious and arousing for demons. And that's a demon hunter we're talking about...
    • Makes a certain kind of sense. Such appealing targets would naturally be sought out first, naturally leading to training. In terms of the present day, it draws the various youkai to those that can handle it, instead of letting them prey on others.
  • Happens with almost every couple at least once in Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi. Almost said word for word when Takano is barely able to keep himself from going along with the mood. It even continues to happen when some of the guys become an Official Couple.
  • Girls are attracted to Guren like bees to honey in Seraph of the End and he has a tendency to instill this in Shigure and Sayuri his bodyguards.
  • Happens practically Once per Episode in Strawberry Shake Sweet: somehow, Ran will always find a perfectly good reason to get all touchy-feely with her senpai Julia; a nosebleed from lovestruck Julia will usually ensue. Apart from the comedic value, this is also an early clue that Ran herself is lowkey crushing on Julia from the start.
  • Rito of To Love Ru does this to a great many of the girls, but the stand-out case is most probably Mikan in Darkness, where a Headbutt Thermometer, combined with trying to hold back the effects of a Love Potion leads to what is most definitely an orgasm in the uncensored volume.
  • Trapped in a Dating Sim: The World of Otome Games is Tough for Mobs: This is a Running Gag with the BDSM themed Roseblade sisters Deirdre and Dorothea.
  • The Tyrant Falls in Love: What should have been a simple haircut becomes a test of Morinaga's self-control when he discovers highly sensitive areas around Souichi's ear; areas which he could conceivably put to good use. His will finally cracks when he tells Souichi to close his eyes and tilt his face upward so that he can snip his bangs… only to find that he's inadvertently set Souichi up into the perfect posture for a kiss. Souichi himself has fallen victim to this trope at least once when Morinaga's efforts not to jump him only ended up turning him on instead.
  • Rebuild World: Akira with his No Social Skills perpetually does this with Sheryl. For instance, when he gets too close to Sheryl watching her beat a game he couldn't. And then there's the Eating the Eye Candy scenes focusing on him, which with Sheryl makes him think she's wanting to say something, and with the tailor Celene who's taking his measurements, Akira thinks her perverted comments were talking about the health of his skin.
  • This is a running joke in Yona of the Dawn between Yona and Hak. In the beginning, it was Yona saying unintentionally suggestive things to Hak, which flustered him frequently. Later, due to a somewhat unconventional Unrequited Love Switcheroo, the situation is reversed with Hak often and accidentally triggering Yona's Crush Blush by using her name or by speaking close to her ear.

    Comic Books 
  • Dick Grayson from Batman is guilty of this to a ridiculous degree. At one point in his publication had six simultaneous acknowledged love interests, and has been referred to as a "factory for broken hearts."
  • Green Arrow has inspired this a few times. Both of them, come to that. Recently, one of Green Arrow's villains was on the business end of a Green Arrow Accidental Seduction when he saved her life—she decided to fixate on him and become an insane Stalker with a Crush. As you do.
  • When this happens to Spider-Man, it usually goes on to blow up in his face. Women occasionally fall for Peter Parker's dorky charms without him realizing it, and then when he has to go out and be Spider-Man or pursue his acknowledged love interests, the women resent him for it.
  • Judge Dredd: Judge Dredd has been on the receiving end of this at least TWICE from citizens he's saved. This is an even worse case than normal, because not only is Dredd almost psychotically dedicated to his job to the point where he's basically asexual, but even if he wasn't, American Judges are not allowed to have personal relationships.
  • Referenced in a darkly hilarious interaction between Tim and Lady Shiva in the Robin miniseries when he goes to Hong Kong. Lady Shiva wakes him up at night for their martial arts training, telling him that she'll bring him to a "whole new world". The decidedly chaste Tim's response? "Um... I don't think I'm ready for this". Lady Shiva then nonchalantly replied that they can do that later, after the training.

    Eastern Animation 

    Fan Works 
Crossover
  • Amelie in Amity (6teen & Danny Phantom): Amelie Lemieux is a very attractive teenager with black wavy hair, dark blue eyes, freckles, and large breasts. All the boys in Casper High are interested in her, while the other girls resent her for taking the boys' attention from them. Amelie herself does not like the attention at all, nor does she mean to attract the boys, but has resigned to the fact the boys will give her unwanted attention.
  • A Lamb In Hell (Cult of the Lamb & Hellaverse) Upon finding the Goetia grimoire, The Lamb wakes up Eris in the middle of the night and vaguely expresses his desire for a vacation. The elk, having a massive crush on her leader and interpreting The Lamb's wish to "get rid of" his stress as a request for sex, almost takes her nightgown off before the deity turns around, reveals the book to her, and ask why she's stripping.

Danny Phantom

Fusion Fic

  • Children of an Elder God (Cthulhu Mythos & Neon Genesis Evangelion): After fighting Amaliel Asuka wraps her arm around Shinji's and drags him away, urging him to tell her all about his battles. She was not intending to turn Shinji on, but "with Asuka's arm entwined with his and her warm tone of voice, his mind turned to mush".

Godzilla

Harry Potter

  • Semantics: note Subverts this trope. Most of the fic revolves around Harry struggling with an attraction to Hermione, not helped by the fact that every other thing that comes out of her mouth seems to be Accidental Innuendo, and it suddenly seems like she eats everything in an erotic way, unknowingly of course. At the end of the fic, after Harry's given in and jumped Hermione, it's revealed that she was doing it all on purpose to entice him.

Hetalia: Axis Powers

  • Gankona, Unnachgiebig, Unità: Let's just say when Italy was showing Germany and Japan the David statue in the Galleria dell'Accademia di Firenze, they weren't appreciating the art. They were imagining Italy as the youth.

KanColle

  • Blizzard of the Red Castle: We have Haruki Misaki, Akagi's lover and Fubuki's father, where he told her how she was more than a weapon to him. According to Kongo's recollection of the event, he... awakened something.

Marvel Cinematic Universe

  • Don't touch MJ's stuff: Michelle Jones often finds herself getting aroused when her crush, Peter Parker, does, well, just about anything. It only gets worse for her after they become an Official Couple.

Neon Genesis Evangelion

  • A Crown of Stars: Before getting together, Asuka constantly turned Shinji on constantly and unintentionally. One of those instances happened When Shinji saw her twirling a gun after decking his father, and all that he could think of was "God, she is hot".
  • Doing It Right This Time: When Rei tried a new dress and innocently asked Asuka if she looked good, Asuka felt very flustered and very hot all of sudden (that was her first hint that she liked both Shinji and Rei).
  • Neon Genesis Evangelion: Genocide: Asuka unintentionally turns Shinji on most of the time. Sometimes she DID mean to turn him on, though, but Shinji didn't get her clues.
    • In chapter 10, Asuka tells Shinji that she has nightmares and wants to sleep in his bed, and makes it crystal clear that sleeping is the only activity she is planning to do and it is just to keep her nightmares at bay. Much to his panic, Shinji realizes that he cannot help but be aroused as she lies next to him and prays she doesn't discover it.

Unsorted

  • Evangelion 303: During their dates Kaworu unintentionally does many things (such as smiling or kissing her hand) that unintentionally get Rei flustered and even aroused.
  • In A Day Indoors by Ambrant Arandel, Kotaro accidentally gets Natsumi, Chizuru, and Ayaka all hot and bothered without meaning to or even knowing he did it.
  • Played with in an Artemis Fowl fanfic where Holly and Artemis are discussing something while her headset is on (meaning, in this case, that Foaly and the majority of the LEPrecon can hear her). She asks a question, which inevitably leads to Artemis diving into a complex answer. About two sentences in, she irritably mutters, "I didn't mean to turn you on," referring to his habit of going into overly-detailed explanations. Recon, being the perverts they are, mistake it for this trope and burst out laughing. Embarrassed, she starts yelling at them (quite loudly) about what perverts they are and how no, she didn't turn Artemis on that way. Artemis stares blandly at her until she's finished and says something deadpan.
  • In some of Chance Encounter 2 and almost all of 3, Balian is this to Cassandra. Everything he does makes her love him more, and, Balian being Balian, he is totally oblivious until he is told. Whereupon he goes bright red.
  • Naruto and a blind Hinata do this to each other through the years in Blind.
  • In chapter 7 of Weightless, after losing Kaidan on Virmire, Shepard isolates and starves herself in her cabin. Garrus brings her some food and she ends up turning him on with her eating. One thing leads to another to an Almost Kiss, and it gets worse (not in a good way) after that.
  • In An Anthem for Sheltered Bays, Eren, who was a former mermaid and an Innocent Fanservice Guy, who shares a bed with Levi sleeping in the buff. Levi, who has romantic feelings for Eren, gets understandably frustrated.
  • Jaune and Pyrrha to each other in Massages while Jaune was giving her a massage. Crosses into Does This Remind You of Anything? since their Auras were melded together for the massage.
  • In the Worm fanfic A Skittering Heart Taylor repeatedly does this or mentions to have done this to her best friend Sabah. She bakes Sabah cakes, puts bubbles on her nose when doing the dishes, cuddles up to her on the couch, wanders around their shared flat in her underwear… Taylor is unaware of the reaction her actions cause though as she is Oblivious to Love.
  • In Thousand Shinji, Asuka unintentionally turns Shinji on when she battles. And when she yells. And when she gets angry. And... all the time, really.
  • In Undertale (Fan Novelization), Frisk encounters a Moldsmal, a slime monster resembling a gelatin mold. Frisk comes to the conclusion it cannot speak or understand human language, so tries to communicate with a different method and realizes too late that Moldsmal interprets hip-wiggling as a form of flirting.
  • In Once More with Feeling, Asuka does this to Shinji the whole time.
    • When they met for the first time –again-, Shinji was trying not to think about stroking her hair while he talked to her.
    • When Asuka was arguing with Misato, Shinji was trying to pay attention to the conversation rather than her very nice, tight shorts.
  • Jeremiah Cross has unintentionally done this to three women in This Bites!:
    • Cross goes on a long speech of how rich the Straw Hat Pirates will be with his foreknowledge when Nami asks. Unfortunately for Cross, in this case Nami has a literal Money Fetish and his dramatic words about their future wealth drive her to orgasm to his horror.
    • Then much later down the line, when he first reveals his plans to use the Straw Hats and the combined Supernovas to purge Sabaody of all slavers, free the slaves, and potentially deal a killing blow to the slavery industry world-wide to Boa Sandersonia and Koala, both of whom are former slaves. Sandersonia goes nearly feral with lust, and has to be knocked unconscious by Koala to prevent her from completing her stated intention of sexually ravaging Cross right there on the table. Then Koala admits she's only somewhat less aroused and attracted than Sandersonia was, and quickly gets him to change the topic.
  • In Advice and Trust, Rei finds herself flabbergasted and in complete disbelief that all of her verbal and physical abuse towards Kaworu manages to give him a Raging Stiffie.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • A byproduct of the lycanthropic curse in the aptly named film Cursed causes those around them to be extremely attracted to the one who is cursed. The newly cursed protagonist Ellie especially notices this with a male assistant of hers, and her brother Jessie is surprised when it happens to the Jerk Jock Bo... neither of which the siblings had any intention in pursuing.
  • Played for Drama in From Dusk Till Dawn: Richie seems like a nice if only a bit stupid guy. He's also a serial rapist who sees even the smallest accidental eye contact as a woman doing this trope to him.
  • Lolita 1997 is full of examples of this between Humbert and Lolita (though later on, it appears that Lolita started doing it more on purpose...).
  • Played for Drama in Psycho. Whenever Norman Bates feels attracted to a woman staying at his motel, his mother eventually discovers it and decides to Murder the Hypotenuse, even if said woman never intended to gain her son's interest.
  • Some Like It Hot features a memorable scene where Marilyn Monroe squeezes half-naked into Jack Lemmon's train berth late one night, completely unaware that her new friend "Daphne" is really a guy in drag running from the mob. Hilarity Ensues as he desperately struggles to stay in character.
  • Sam watching Mikaela checking out Bumblebee's engine in Transformers (2007). She may have been doing it on purpose.
  • X-Men: First Class:
    • Magneto gained the admiration of Mystique due to his strong morals and burning desire to achieve a world where mutants are socially accepted. He's also the only guy to tell her that she looks beautiful in her true form and gently kisses her affectionately after she reveals her natural look to him, but it's unknown whether he has actual feelings for her.
    • Mystique also had a huge crush on Charles Xavier due to his idealistic, adorkable personality and genuine care for her well-being, but he remains oblivious.
  • Ever see Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein?
    "Are you ready, my dear? This is it; Elevate me."
    "Now ... right here?"
    "Yes, yes! Raise the platform!"
    "Oh! Ze platform, Ja!"

    Literature 
  • In "Clockpunk and the Vitalizer," much of what The Vitalizer does - talking, destroying things, sitting, existing - drives Clockpunk nuts.
  • In Doctrine of Labyrinths, Mildmay mistakenly considers himself ugly and is utterly oblivious to the effect he has on various other characters, including Mehitabel, and Felix, his own brother. In both cases they have to literally spell it out for him before he realises they've been lusting after him all this time - which is a pleasant surprise in Mehitabel's case, and a horrifying shock in Felix's.
    • Felix, on the other hand, knows exactly how beautiful he is and frequently uses this to his advantage, but even he draws in a few unwanted admirers while he's just minding his own business, including several women (he's gay) and a man who may or may not be his biological father.
  • In Heralds of Valdemar Herald Talia gets an indirect sexual thrill whenever her Companion Rolan gets amorous (due to Empathy being her gift and their bond being unusually tight). When she can't get close to the man she wants to love, Herald Dirk, Rolan obliviously makes her even more miserable by having a protracted dalliance with Ahrodie, Dirk's Companion.
  • InCryptid: As a succubus, Elsie Harrington naturally produces pheromones that attract human males (except her relatives) to her. She has no interest in them and finds it rather annoying, since she's a lesbian trying to flirt with their girlfriends. Her brother Artie, an incubus, has it even worse, since he has Power Incontinence and can't go outside without people wanting to jump his bones.
  • In The Kharkanas Trilogy this is Spinnock's reaction when he learns that innocent flirting with his cousin Faror Hend was a lot less innocent from her point of view.
  • Phèdre in Kushiel's Legacy is an anguisette and cursed to feel pain and pleasure as one. Any bit of pain will register as pleasure for her. So when she had to get her marque (read tattoo that covers most of her back) worked on she was reduced to an orgasm laden mess. The guy doing the job even complains about how annoying it is to work on someone who is constantly writhing in ecstasy while he's trying to apply the tattoo, just like his grandfather (who did the last anquisette's marque) told him.
  • Outlander:
    • Jamie Fraser proves himself something of a master of this trope with Lord John. Isn't his fault that the man has a thing for older guys, amicable chess games and good Lord, that accent. (Unfortunately, when Jamie figures this out, his reaction is not a particularly happy one.)
    • Also, both in A Breath of Snow and Ashes — Lizzie is having a seizure, and of course Kezzie and Jo have to help her out, right? Of course, Lizzie's treatment borders on Intimate Healing... Woops. And Phaedre ends up accidentally turning on Duncan by way of breakfast and some involuntary physical reactions to appealing young women leaning over one in bed early in the morning.
  • In Phenomena poor Alk can't catch a break. If a girl looks at him, with the exception of his sister happily, as much as looks at him does he blush.
  • Temeraire: When dragon Temeraire matures to adulthood, he grows whiskers around his mouth. Turns out they are an erogenous area; as his human captain Laurence casually pets them, he is mortified to realize that Temeraire really likes being touched there.
  • The Twilight Saga:
    • Edward just doesn't see how dazzling he is. Bella is happy to tell him.
    • Bella arguably does the same thing with Jacob in their first encounter. Her attempts at flirting to find out more about the Cullens are a little too effective.
    • Bella also doesn't see how beautiful she is to Edward, but since he is the strong responsible man he has to be the one denying them sex. At least until they are married.

    Live-Action TV 
  • In Arrow, the Arrow saves a police officer's life by killing several goons coming after her, but she mistakes his rescue as a sign that he loves her. This woman would eventually become Cupid.
  • In the Seinfeld episode "The Tape", after hearing a sexy (but joking) voice message from Elaine, George finds he can no longer even sit in a car with her without feelings of The Urge. In fact, by the end of the episode, all of the male characters are enamored with Elaine after hearing the tape.
  • An episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 began with Mike and the Bots accidentally turning each other on by greeting each other, apologizing for turning each other on (while being very bitter about it), telling the viewers that they'll be right back… Pearl eventually tells them that they "couldn't turn [her] on with a dozen naked Gerardos and Fabio in tight leather pants… where was I?"
  • The entire relationship between Daphne and Niles on Frasier seems to be based on this trope. For the first six seasons, Daphne had this effect on Niles. Then, in the seventh season, he got over her—just in time for her to discover his feelings, fall in love with him in return, and suffer through this trope herself.
  • Bruno does this to Kerry in an episode of 8 Simple Rules. Note that he does try to seduce her, he just doesn't know that it's working.
  • An episode of Friends showed Monica making "sex noises" when Phoebe gave her a massage.
  • Similarly, an episode of Modern Family has Claire making "sex noises" when she gets massages at the mall.
  • In the Married... with Children episode "A Little of the Top", Al was accidentally circumcised and had to abstain from sex for a while. Usually, he found the idea of sex with his wife repulsive, but then — probably due to Forbidden Fruit effect — everything she did turned him on.
    • Also anytime she actually cleans, he can't help but get horny from the rare sight.
  • In Doctor Who, the Doctor definitely has his moments of this in the new series. He's done it to both Martha and Amy — even claiming to the latter he's like a Space Gandalf — but whether it's because of repressed feelings or him just being clueless is up for debate. It's probably a mixture of both. Noteworthy exchange between the 12th Doctor and Clara Oswin Oswald:
    Doctor: Clara, I'm not your boyfriend.
    Clara: I never thought you were.
    Doctor: I never said it was your mistake.
  • Very much Played for Drama in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "Amends". The First Evil is trying to make Angel feed on Buffy or have sex with her, either of which will turn him evil. Angel encounters Buffy in her bedroom wearing a blood-red dress, her hair pinned up to expose her neck, and her lower lip trembling from repressed emotion — he jumps out the window so he won't be tempted to jump on her.
  • In Charité at War, an oblivious Otto helps his colleague and co-veteran Martin with his prosthesis, which includes applying ointment to his sore thigh stump. Martin is... well, mildly flustered.

    Pro Wrestling 

    Video Games 
  • During one scene of Tao's story mode in BlazBlue: Continuum Shift, Tao goes to retrieve the resident nurse Litchi Faye-Ling from her clinic. Tao's standard greeting of "Boobie Lady" is a Skinship Grope, and she proceeds to feel up the first person she meets- Bang Shishigami. His reaction is, predictably, explosive.
  • A common occurrence for Commander Shepard (of either gender) in the Mass Effect trilogy is that s/he will gain an increasing amount of interest from his/her squadmates or other civilians due to frequently having deep, personal conversations with them. Usually, a character Shepard interacts with will drop hints of interest in the commander to trigger the Romance Sidequest the more you choose to talk with them, but the player may have to let down some of their close friends. If you so choose, you can make Garrus an instigator of this, since his romance track starts with him talking about one of his "conquests", which Shepard can springboard off of to proposition him. He's genuinely caught off-guard by the offer, before regaining composure and essentially stating this trope:
    Garrus: Oh... I didn't know you liked men with scars, Shepard.
  • In Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, it probably wasn't Big Boss's intention to get Ocelot turned on to torture when he pissed his pants and got his eye shot out. Poor Solid Snake had to suffer for that. Big Boss at least did mean for Ocelot to handle his gunfighting technique in a more efficient manner, he didn't however intend for Ocelot to enjoy reloading his gun in combat so much.
  • The H-Game series Monster Girl Quest features an extremely dark take on this trope. The hero, Luka, has a natural scent that is highly attractive to the Cute Monster Girls that roam his world. However, since said monster girls have a strong need to procreate, they lose all inhibitions when they're around Luka - causing them to rape him in various scenarios (and that's not going into the myriad of Non-Standard Game Overs the game has).
  • A Running Gag with Cyrus, one of the main protagonists from Octopath Traveler, is that he has an unintended habit of charming women and sending them the wrong signal. At the start of Chapter 2, he reads a letter from one of his old colleagues who is chastising him over this, telling him to be more mindful of the way he speaks to women. Later in the same chapter in a party chat, he manages to inadvertently charm fellow protagonist Primrose (who is literally a professional at seducing others - it's her Path Action and her profession, after all), who remarks that she legitimately can't tell if he's play-acting or if he sincerely doesn't realize how attractive he is and the signals he's sending out.
  • Tales of the Abyss has Guy Cecil. Genuine Nice Guy, a cute dork, and quite the gentleman (if a Covert Pervert). He genuinely, truly, definitely does not intend to turn anyone on; he's gynophobic (i.e terrified of women) after all. He still does it and his tendency to accidentally lead women on is lampshaded.
    Luke: Don't you feel sorry for the women you lead on like that?

    Visual Novels 
  • In Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, there is a scene when Junpei and Akane (obviously and mutually in love) take an elevator ride together. Since the elevator goes to the deck that is supposed to be flooded, Akane tries to tell him she's afraid of drowning, but words it in such a way that he thinks she's talking about sex. At no point during the conversation she seems to notice that she's getting his mind in a gutter. Although in the true end it is revealed that she's a telepath and master liar, meaning it's very likely that she did mean to turn him on.
  • In the Kidnapped Turnabout case of Ace Attorney Investigations, Lauren Paups suddenly panics in the middle of questioning for unexpected reasons—or entirely expected reasons, given Miles Edgeworth is the interrogator.
    Kay: You're making your scary face again, that's why! Why don't you try asking her in a nicer, more gentle way?
    Paups: No, stop it, Lauren! You're always like this! You always fall for the stern-looking one... That's why you'll always be unhappy!
    Kay: ... Or maybe that's it. She's been bewitched by your icy glare.
  • In Fate/hollow ataraxia, it's revealed that Shirou's love interests keep a notebook detailing his "sins", of which Sakura says there are a lot. Since Shirou is a very polite and Nice Guy, unlike the other person Sakura criticizes that way, it's likely that said sins are examples of this trope.

    Webcomics 
  • Alfie (2010): This happens between Cillian and Vera when they are forced into shelter together during a blizzard. Vera has spent years unwillingly acting as The Beard to her husband. When Cillian goes out of his way to help Vera on her mission to track down her daughter, she finds herself increasingly attracted to him, which becomes difficult to manage when they are trapped in an enclosed space for days. Though their time together is initially littered with arguments, Vera's attempts to be nice and open up lead to Cillian reciprocating her feelings, and the two are able to enter the first healthy relationship either one has had in years.
  • The Law of Purple: When Green starts crushing on Lynnah...oh, just look here.
  • DiDi of Ménage à 3 can have a potentially unfortunate effect on every heterosexual male and even vaguely bisexual female within line of sight, just by breathing, as she demonstrates soon after her first appearance. Unfortunately, asking her to restrain the effect does no good, as Zii discovers the hard way; she appears to be totally unaware of what she's doing.
  • Namir Deiter: Issac did this to his own sister, Blue, during his introductory arc. It should be noted that neither she nor the reader knew who he was at the time, and he bolted in horror when he realized what happened.
  • In The Order of the Stick, Haley suffered from this trope in the earlier comics with regards to Elan. This strip is one example.
  • Sunstone:
    • Once Anne starts exploring Lisa's erotic BDSM writings (Most of which feature her Author Avatar), her interactions with her new friend becomes understandably more complex, especially because as a self-described hobbyist Lisa is keen to bring up these topics with Anne as much as possible.
    • Later averted into "I DID Mean to Turn You On" where Lisa starts outright writing erotica for Anne, this gets her in trouble.

    Western Animation 
  • In Beware the Batman, Batman decides to frequently visit Magpie in prison as a way to Pet the Dog, but she mistakes it as him loving her.
  • Family Guy:
    • In a rare, emotional scene, Lois has to politely let down Brian by informing them that they are just friends and she doesn't want to cause problems between them, despite his growing interest for her.
    • In "Christmas is Coming", Meg takes Stewie to the mall to see Santa Claus. Stewie is terrified of the Mall Santa, so Meg sits on Santa's lap with Stewie to calm him down. The mall Santa starts bouncing them on her knee to further help Stewie relax, which instead stimulates Meg to the point of orgasm. It's subverted later on, however. When she tracks him down later, he turns out to be the real Santa, and he knew exactly what he was doing, considering it her Christmas gift.
  • King of the Hill: Hank accidentally gains the interest of a female cop due to him being his usual, overly friendly self and complimenting her appearance. However, the officer grows infatuated with Hank and spends an entire episode trying to win him over.
  • Lolita Lolita: The title character is a very attractive red-headed woman who just goes about her day. Only, she ends up turning on every male who catches sight of her... assets without even realizing it (if she ever even realizes it at all).
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: Applejack accidentally gains the attention of Trenderhoof while working hard at her apple farm, becoming sweaty, wincing at him in a friendly manner, and chewing an apple sexually. Unfortunately, he mistakes her friendly welcome as a sign of affection.
  • ThunderCats (2011): Cheetara accidentally earns the affection of Lion-O due to her Hands-On Approach at teaching him to become a warrior and her very personal conversations with him about how much of a great hero he is.


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