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Instant Turn-Off

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"So you know, if you ever use the phrase 'get with child' while we're trying to get busy, you're going to find yourself with negative access to my reproductive organs."
Verity Price, InCryptid, "Waking Up in Vegas"

A character that Really Gets Around wants to get aroused with some content the person likes, so makes a search and gets a material to get aroused. Then suddenly this character discovers the content is Squick, has Jump Scare or is The Reveal that could be is that it was their parent/sibling/close friend/a robot and if it was someone of the opposite gender to what they thought it was, then it most likely crossovers with Unsettling Gender-Reveal. Or even it's something the character dislikes or hates. The case is the content becomes more than just a Fetish Retardant, the character becomes so horrified with the content that stops with their actions, and in many cases, it has to go to therapy. In other cases, the character only turns off and get away from the situation or the scene they were involved with.

Sub-Trope of Moment Killer. Compare Too Much Information and Squick. Contrast Fetish, where a character intentionally looks for something unusual for arousal. Also contrast in the case the character got aroused with the content, anyway. See also Think Unsexy Thoughts. Related to Fan Disservice.

See also Wasted Beauty, for a good-looking person who might draw attraction/arousal from others, if not for some serious personality flaw or quirk that drives suitors away.


No Real Life Examples, Please!

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    Anime and Manga 
  • Booty Royale: Never Go Down Without a Fight!: Sent by her agency to provide entertainment at an industry party, Misora is rescued by a male counterpart who brings her to an upstairs room at the hotel. They start making out, move to the bed, and she's pretty sure she's going to finally lose her virginity the way she wants... when he takes a pause to snort some cocaine. The moment ruined, she promptly punches his lights out in frustration and leaves. Subverted in that her arousal actually doesn't go away, just her willingness to take advantage: she can't get to sleep after getting home without masturbating.
  • In chapter 37 of Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid, a Gender Bent Kobayashi ends up getting turned off by Tohru when she takes off her maid outfit (the narration compares it to the feeling of seeing a cosplayer out of their costume).

    Comic Books 
  • In the first issue of O.M.A.C., Buddy Blank seems to be very pleased with her new partner Lila in the place he worked for, being the only person that was kind to him. That, until he found the secret of the factory that made Robot Girls... like Lila, which eventually horrified Buddy.
    Hello... put me together... and I will be your friend...

    Fan Works 
  • The Discworld fic Gap Year Adventures sees two recently-graduated Assassins go touring in a remote continent purely for the hell of it. A sister at Home sends them some typical cheesecake magazines aimed at the aspiring young woman, of the sort that include lots of pictures of desirable young men in Ankh-Morpork who are, conveniently, not wearing too many clothes. The younger sister who receives the magazines reminisces that as schoolgirls in the dorms, these pictures used to circulate as fantasy fodder and were pinned up over many bed spaces. Then she heatedly says that when the Hunk of the Month turns out to be your own brother (a well-thought-of football player), then this takes all the joy out of it and makes it all decidedly squicky. Her friend who is not related to the Hunk of the Month still finds reasons to be alone with the magazine...
  • In Inadequate Storage Space, Motormaster and Wildrider attempt to have a frag session that quickly derails when Wildrider starts fishing rocks and weapons out of his Exotic Equipment, having ran out of other places to store them on his person and not been given the opportunity to drop them off in his room first. The sight of the retrieved items immediately turns off Motormaster, who kicks Wildrider out of his room due to sheer disgust.
  • The Pitch Perfect Ghostbusters fic "Paranormal Aca-tivity" features a minor example when Beca realises that the possessed Chloe and Aubrey may have had sex under the influence of the Gatekeeper/Keymaster; observing that the two girls basically consider each other sisters in their non-possessed state, Beca urges the rest of the Ghostbusters to make a team pact that this information never leaves the rooftop.

    Film - Live-Action 
  • In Movie 43 one of the characters has been watching porn on his little brother's laptop for the sake of revenge. Along the way, he comes across this porn star who he feels a deep connection with, towards the end of the film his Mom comes in wearing the same outfit as the porn star was earlier. He realizes that he has most likely been jacking off to his Mom, goes into shock and tries to rip off his own penis, months later he has lost his ability to walk and is only capable of endlessly repeating the words "I'm sorry".
  • Early on in her, Theodore engages in anonymous phone sex, which goes alright until the woman, approaching climax, creeps him out by demanding that he role play strangling her with a dead cat.
  • Creepshow 2, segment "The Raft". Two teenagers (a boy and a girl) are trapped on a raft in the middle of a lake by a monster living in the water. While the girl is asleep, the boy starts groping her in a sexual way. The girl turns over, revealing that the monster has seeped through the raft and dissolved part of her face, terrifying the boy.
  • The Blob (1988): A teen boy is in a car date with a cute blonde and he puts an arm around her shoulder. When she doesn't react, he goes for the top buttons on her blouse. It's when he reaches inside to touch her breast that she flops over dead because the Blob has already eaten the away-facing half of her.
  • Invoked by Dominika in Red Sparrow. After she fights off an Attempted Rape in the shower at State School 4, Matron tries to get Dominika to service her rapist in front of the class, telling her to identify what he wants and give it to him. He tells her to strip and turn around, but Dominika instead takes off her clothes while facing him and commands him to get on with it. He can't get hard, and Dominika states that what he wants is power over her.
  • Zathura: Lisa becomes attracted to The Astronaut until she finds out he's actually her younger brother Walter from an alternate future timeline.
  • In Liar Liar, Fletcher's law firm boss, Miranda, seduces him into having sex with her after being impressed by his lying skills. As they remain lying on the floor Post-Sex, a still lustful Miranda asks how good the sex was for him. However, he winds up unintentionally answering the truth that "he had better," which instantly turns her off.

    Jokes 
  • There is a Russian joke where a man confesses to doctor he usually masturbates to a certain painting of a pretty woman. The doctor is quick to point out it actually depicts Mikhail Lomonosov.
  • There's a common joke between male friends in social networks (mostly Whatsapp), where one friend shows a porn scene of a man with a beautiful woman about to do it, when it's revealed the woman is trans, just to squick his other friends.
    • A rare add on to this joke is to have a non-transphobic friend reply with something like "So? Only a coward runs when he finds his opponent is similarly armed."

    Literature 
  • Amos in The City Who Fought is beautiful and very charming around women, but he's also Space Amish and rather believes that women who are in charge don't really know what they're doing and are just kind of holding space for men. This leads to several women initially being quite attracted to him only to then become enraged when they try to discuss serious topics and feel dismissed, and Amos has to be sternly talked into giving a genuine effort.
    • In The Ship Who Won, Keff is instantly and intensely attracted to the first magess he sees, a golden Vain Sorceress. This drops off instantly as she proves to be quite cruel, including to him, and he instead winds up in a Rescue Romance with the token good mage after she saves him.
  • Fairly early in The Dresden Files: Peace Talks, Harry and Karrin get frisky while he's visiting her, only for their movements to inadvertently aggravate one of the injuries she incurred from Nicodemus's beating in the previous book. Harry's arousal vanishes almost instantly, much to her frustration. (They try again at the end of the chapter and apparently have no further problems.)

    Live-Action TV 
  • The Drew Carey Show has an episode where Drew, Oswald, and Lewis try to watch scrambled porn because Drew believes that the cable company will turn him in if he has both Cartoon Network and porn channels. It turns out it's the surgery channel they're watching, not the porn channel.
  • An episode of Frasier has Niles going into raptures about a fuzzy, ill-defined photograph that he thinks is a picture of Daphne Moon's breast and nipple. Niles' fantasies grow and swell out of proportion... until it is revealed that Martin was trying to photograph Eddie (the dog) but had the camera backwards. The nipple is in fact that of Martin, Niles' father. It is strongly implied Niles has been having active sexual fantasies over the photo...
  • In a Castle episode involving a murder in a vampire LARP community, Ryan remarks that he dated a girl once who was into the lifestyle but it didn't work out.
    Esposito: What happened, did the relationship suck? (Castle gestures him kudos for the pun)
    Ryan: Deal-breaker for me? She wanted to have sex in a coffin. I'm open-minded, I'm not that open-minded.
  • In the Game of Thrones episode "The Night Lands", Theon Greyjoy catches a ride to Pyke from a rather attractive blonde woman. While riding second seat on her horse, he starts feeling her up. He learns shortly after arriving that she's his older sister Yara, and is extremely squicked out, both at the fact he felt up his sister, and that she didn't stop him.
  • While Jeff and Annie make out in Community episode "Remedial Chaos Theory", Jeff is greatly turned off when Annie tells him that his protective instinct reminds her of her father.
  • In Lucifer, the titular character really gets turned off, whenever someone mentions his father. Unfortunately, this happens quite a lot, given all the "oh my God"s and "thank God"s humans like to say.
    Store customer: (tasting a strawberry) Oh God!
    Lucifer Morningstar: Really? You have to bring him up now? I mean, we were having a moment.

    Webcomics 
  • El Goonish Shive: Elliot trying to find a sexy form that he enjoys being, but feels guilty about all of them.
  • In Something*Positive, Davan and his bisexual girlfriend Vanessa visit a strip club. Vanessa gets a private dance... and it turns out the owner thought a gynecologist's chair went well with stripping. Vanessa emerges horrified.
  • Terminal Lance #141: "Where You Least Expect It". Marine is jerking off to porn on his laptop. Marine sees an EGAnote  tattoo on the male actor's arm. Marine loses boner. (The author, a former Marine, explains in The Rant that this is essentially because it feels like jerking off to a family member.)

    Web Original 
  • In Llamas with Hats, Carl is shocked to learn that his roommate, Paul, is a man (he assumed that Paul was a woman because of his effeminate hat). After the reveal, Carl ends the episode with this remark:
    Carl: Well, if you'll excuse me, I have some pictures to delete from my computer.

    Western Animation 

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