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The calf is mightier than the thumb.
Karla: O heaven, I seem to have ripped my dress, revealing a ripe pair of swelling, heaving bosoms! Will someone help me put them back in? The Narrator: Seventeen guards were killed in the rush...
— Kremmen of the Star Corps
Female character provides a distraction by flirting with and/or showing some skin to an opposing guard, Spear Carrier and/or Red Shirt characters. Of course if you have large breasts it's a lot easier. And some characters are distractions all by themselves.
This trope does not mean characters whose outfit only covers their top half; that's Stripperiffic, She's Got Legs or possibly Who Wears Short Shorts?. It is often the justification for a Chainmail Bikini.
See also: Fanservice, Bath Kick, Zettai Ryouiki, Distracted by the Sexy, Action Dress Rip. Compare Fake-Out Make-Out.
Examples
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Anime & Manga
- Inverted in Busou Renkin where Tokiko is forced to wear a two-piece bathing suit, and spends the whole long beach scene chewing out other people whom she accuses of staring at her bellybutton. She even yells at the readers.
- A variation occurs in the Love Hina manga when Kitsune, Motoko, and Mutsumi are trying to get a ride to the airport. Kitsune lifts up Motoko's shirt to entice travellers... and promptly causes a 20-car pileup.
- Dominion Tank Police takes this a little further than usual, with the Puma sisters distracting the cops with a striptease while their boss reloads his machine gun.
- In the television incarnation of the Dirty Pair, this is a tactic Kei resorted to once when some guards had them at gunpoint with no other choices available — she tears her top open, and the guards take their eyes off Yuri for just one fatal second. (This is frequently counted as a Crowning Moment of Awesome.)
- The Slayers
- Subverted when Gourry asks Lina Inverse to jiggle to distract a guard and her response is "I can't do that!" (Lina's relatively small chest is a Running Gag in the series.)
- Played straight, however, in an OVA, using a much more suited Naga and Lina's flying dropkick.
- Mai-HiME
- The main Power Trio of girls are stranded by the roadside. Natsuki loses the draw. Hilarity Ensues.
- Subverted in Mai-Otome: In an attempt to hitch a ride with a passing van, Nao yanks down Natsuki's pants. The soldiers in the van promptly arrest them for indecent exposure.
- Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
- Episode "Angel's Share". To make a long story short, Chief Aramaki and an associate are being held hostage in a London winery. Motoko approaches an officer wearing her coat so that her breasts hang out, asking him for a "favor". He takes the bait and removes his helmet, whereupon The Major knocks him out and takes his uniform. Ironically, she usually wears less clothes...
- In 2nd Gig two female androids are sent down to "entertain" the guards who are immediately suspicious, but provide enough of a distraction for Section 9 personnel in therm-optics to take them out. In the same episode the Major (in a Sexy Back Absolute Cleavage dress) acts as a distraction for a perverted businessman with a thing for cyborgs.
- In the very first episode of Burn Up! W, "Skin Dive", Rio distracts a band of terrorists by bungee-jumping naked. Technically she was wearing a full-body suit that appeared as flesh colored until she activated it.
- Ranma ½
- Although most of Ranma's opponents (even girl-shy Ryōga) are immune to Ranma's feminine attributes, she was able to stop Prince Herb in his tracks by flashing her breasts at him, not once but several times. Seeing how he had come within inches of chopping off her head in one such instance, it's understandable.
- Ranma also does this to save Ukyō from Ryōga: when the former is first introduced to the school, Ryōga misunderstands and (like everyone else at first) thinks Ukyō is a man, and nearly skewers her with his umbrella. Ranma quickly dashes in and rips open Ukyō's uniform jacket, showing her breasts (bound tight with Sarashi) to Ryōga. He gets smashed with a giant steel spatula by way of thanks.
- Even Akane (!) gets into the act: in order to save Ranma from the Orochi, she rips off her own jacket, revealing her true gender. The woman-eating dragon is sufficiently distracted and stops in its efforts to eat Ranma. Of course, that was after female-Ranma's attempts to Show Some Leg (or breast) at the Orochi (in order to draw it away from Akane and Shinnosuke) backfired horribly. The breasts went over fine — the boxers, not as much.
- The first Pantyhose Tarō arc involved lots of actual pantyhose and Ranma used this trope multiple times to trick Happōsai.
- Pulled once in Eyeshield 21, when the team's truck runs out of gas during a trip across America, and the group tries to get a car to stop so they can siphon some more. After several failed attempts from the men of the group, Mamori and Suzuna accomplish the task by donning skimpy outfits and posing, causing a male-driven car to slam their brakes for a better look, after which Hiruma "borrows" some gas from the hapless guys.
- The fourth Mazinkaiser OAV is about Sayaka and the twins Lori and Loru being put in this situation. From Sayaka showing how much she fills in a bikini and the twins showing up in even more diminute thongs, to Sayaka being rendered topless in front of both heroes and mooks (Admittely, the last one was accidental: Koji had tried to stop her from going gung-ho on the armed mooks, but when he tried to grab her by the shoulder, he ended up undoing her bikini top instead... and then being the Idiot Hero he is, he turns it into a strategy to completely distract the rest of the guards at her expense. No wonder she's so mad.)
- Used in the Colus/Hagooda War story arc in Five Star Stories. After being kicked off the bus they were taking to see King Colus, Mission Routh forces Ladios & Meg to strip down to their underwear to flag down cars on the highway. A bit of a subversion, since one is an Artificial Human & the other is actually a very feminine-looking Bishounen, & they didn't even need to do it anyway, since the king sent them a limo.
- Subverted in Strike Witches, when Erica poses in order to induce an approaching truck to stop and give her, Minna, and Gertrude a ride, and the truck doesn't even slow down. Considering that the "no pants" look seems to be popular in Britannia, maybe the driver was simply too jaded to fall for it. Which just goes to show that fanservice is relative.
- The eponymous protagonist from Ryofuko-chan tries to divert attention by showing off her legs in one scene. It doesn't work though, since she is an elementary school girl and her targets don't swing that way.
- In the second episode of Koihime†Musou, Chouun first draws the guards attention by shaking her stocking. Then shows off her leg. Naturally, the ruse works perfectly.
- Cruelly subverted in Victory Gundam. One of the antagonists sends out a small squad of armed bikini-clad women in an attempt to use this trope against protagonist Uso Evin, who is piloting his Gundam. Instead, Evin simply goes mad, bashing right through them and eliminating the final one with a casual wave of his Gundam's beam saber.
- During the first Budokai Tenkaichi in Dragon Ball, Nam's opponent Ranfan removes her clothes as a distraction. The trope is then subverted when Nam realizes he can fight with his eyes closed.
- In one episode of Princess Nine, the all-girl baseball team tries the tactic on an all-boy team. It works for a few innings....
- The same trick is used in the Ah! My Goddess manga, where Urd undoes a few buttons on her top to help Megumi win her match to keep the baseball team from shutting down the softball team. It works for a few innings, but they snap out of it when they realize they're about to lose.
- Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid. The soldiers guarding Amalgam's giant mecha are pleasantly surprised when twin Emotionless Girls Yu Fan and Yu Lan come in and start smooching and feeling them up. When a mook takes his hand off the AK-47 he's holding to accept a hotel room key, one of the twins grabs the weapon and promptly blows his head off. Everyone else dies rapidly after that.
- Done in Fushigi Yuugi by Miaka when she is held captive by Kutou soldiers in the dungeon. She calls it "Operation: Sex Plot".
- Used in the first arc of Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni Kai, where Rena, um... disables Keiichi by turning up the moe factor to eleven.
- Sonia the nun from Hayate the Combat Butler uses this tactic against the modest and polite Hayate. It works, but not because he gets distracted; it works because there's another character nearby, and he fears that if she observes the scene, she'll misinterpret it as him making a sexual assault. (And given his Cosmic Plaything status and the nature of the series, his worry is justified.)
- Subverted in Fairy Tail, where most times when Lucy tries or is forced into attempting this, the enemy is more confused than distracted, and keeps attacking anyway.
- In the first episode, she invoked this in an attempt to get a Spirit Key for a reduced rate from a magic item store. It did work, but not nearly to the extent that she expected(/would have liked).
- Also used when Natsu realizes an enemy is on his way and gets Lucy to dress up in a revealing outfit and pose seductively in order to distract him. It failed.
- Used again when Angel transformed into Lucy and lifted her top as Lucy.
- In the Monster Rancher anime, Fairy Hare — Hare's New Old Flame — provides this when she, Hare and Wild Hare go to raid a Baddie's warehouse.
- In Soul Eater Blair seems to favor this tactic to actual combat. As she tried to seduce Soul in the first chapter. And Blair during a run-in with some flipped Gender did this as a man, to a succubus... by transforming into her (his) human form. Regardless of gender, Blair is very hot.
- Done off-camera in Macross Frontier. Sheryl Nome walks onto the bridge of the Macross Quarter unannounced. When the crew asks how she got past security, cut to a shot of a very happy security guard touching a Lipstick Mark on his cheek.
- Inverted in Claymore. Teresa is going to be raped by bandits, so she just takes off her clothes. This dissuades them quite handily. In case you're going "wait, what?" in response to that, Claymores ARE all beautiful women, but have some kind of hideous defomation in the middle of their torso as a result of the process used to create them. At least, that's what has been implied so far.
- Yami No Aegis: Tate seems to like this trope. A particularly notable example involves asking a female police officer to get naked to distract the bad guys, even threatening to strip her and roll her out if she didn't do it herself. Admittedly, utterly surprising the bad guys for a few seconds was their only chance to survive, but still....
- When Allen is imprisoned by his own king in Vision of Escaflowne, Princess Milerna uses this to distract a guard while Gadess sneaks up and administers a Tap on the Head.
Comics — Books
- Ms. Tree sometimes performs "The Nailer", in an acknowledged Shout Out to Modesty Blaise.
- In an issue of Superman/Batman, Power Girl (Most Common Superpower incarnate) is told to distract a thirteen-year-old boy. She asks how on earth she is supposed to do that before saying "Oh", with a slight glance downward.
- Transmetropolitan: Channon, Spider Jerusalem's female bodyguard, flashes her boobs to hail a cab. This being the City, home of every weird fetish imaginable, it takes Yelena joining in, and both stepping into the street, to get him to stop.
- In The Ultimates #6, Wasp flies in front of the Hulk's face and distracts him with a "Mardi Gras special".
- In the Sin City story "A Dame to Kill For", a disguised Gail flirts with a guard before popping him in the jaw and setting a bomb at a crimelord's estate.
- In Camelot 3000, King Arthur has Sir Tristan, who'd been reincarnated as female, pull this stunt on some enemy guards. As Arthur knew Tristan hated being stuck in a woman's body, this was as much a loyalty-test for Tristan as a means of neutralizing the guards.
- There is a point in Marvel Star Wars in which Dani dances◊ to distract an Imperial patrol. It works so well that they don't even notice that Leia's just off to their other side, out in the open trying to keep something from flying away.
Comics — Newspaper
Films — Animation
- Jasmine in Disney's Aladdin when she flirts with Jafar to try to give Aladdin enough time to get to the lamp. Which works a bit too well; it distracts Aladdin too.
- The Nightmare Before Christmas subverts this trope. To distract Oogie Boogie, Sally shows him one curvy leg around a distant corner, while the rest of her works to free Santa Claus. Mr. Boogie is not pleased to discover that her leg is detached. (Fortunately, Sally is a Patchwork Girl. Otherwise, the subversion would have been truly nasty, not to mention Bloody Hilarious.)
- In The Incredibles, Elastigirl unintentionally has this happen to her. Her leg gets caught on the other side of a sealed door causing a guard to stop and stare at it. When he decides to poke it, she kicks his face in response, knocking him out. However, this is also what freed her, as his weapon reactively fired as he hit the ground, hitting the controls to the door.
- Parodied in The Emperor's New Groove, in which the very old villainess Yzma prepares to lift up her dress, causing Pacha and Kuzco to scream in terror. Cue Yzma revealing a knife strapped to her calf, and Kuzco and Pacha sighing in relief.
- Used to distract the enemy in Mulan. Doubles as Crowning Moment of Funny.
- In Shrek, one of the ugly stepsisters does this to one of the soldiers to provide a distraction for the rest of the cast to locate Shrek. Considering that she's ugly, and knocks him out afterwards, it is also a Crowning Moment of Funny.
Films — Live-Action
- In possibly the most famous example, a hitchhiking Claudette Colbert picks up a ride by flashing her legs in Frank Capra's It Happened One Night. This one has been parodied so many times that many people now don't realize this is where the gag actually came from.
- Parodied very soon after in Laurel and Hardy's Way Out West when Stanley shows some leg to stop a passing stagecoach!
- Invoked much later by Julia Roberts's character in Mystic Pizza. She's not successful. Her date decides to give it a try, prompting a woman to pull over when he drops his pants.
- Both played straight and subverted in Jackie Chan's Operation Condor. Early in the movie, Jackie distracts the thug with the gun by pulling the towel off a recently-showered Elsa, then kicks the guard unconscious. Later, when Jackie, Elsa, and Ada are in a similar situation, this time with Ada fresh out of the shower, Elsa de-towels Ada... and Jackie is just as distracted as the thug.
- Played straight — to quite a few people's dismay — in Star Trek V, when Uhura does a fan dance to distract some guards. Nichelle Nichols didn't look bad for 57, but was hardly the usual sexy distraction. Given that the men she was dancing for were living on a Crapsack World for years without the company of a woman, they probably liked her just fine.
- In Slums of Beverly Hills, Marissa Tomei's character gets a ride from a trucker by standing in the middle of the road and opening her bathrobe. The headlights shining through the robe suggested nothing underneath.
- The James Bond film The Living Daylights involves two cases of this, although in the second it's not voluntary.
- Topper Returns.
- Appears, complete with actual showing-of-leg, in To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything, Julie Newmar, with something of a twist since the one showing leg was John Leguizamo in drag.
- Felicity Shagwell enables herself and Austin Powers to escape in The Spy Who Shagged Me by baring her chest to the guard, causing him to stumble forward and into a lava pit.
"What do you think of these, my man?"
"...Mommy!"
- Was going to occur in Galaxy Quest, but the scene was left on the cutting room floor, which accounts for a sudden increase in exposure on the part of Sigourney Weaver, who ends up leaving some of her covering material on the "cutting room" floor too.
- Space Mutiny. Yes, Space Mutiny.
- The film Druids has an example of this where a woman distracts a guard in order to sneak into a castle or some other stupid thing. Then she dispatches him.
- 10 Things I Hate About You. Except it ain't her leg Kat shows to get Patrick out of detention... She was actually suggesting this strategy at the time, too.
"I dazzled him with my ' wits'."
- A problem with this tactic is raised in the 1971 film adaptation of Alistair MacLean's When Eight Bells Toll. The hero played by Anthony Hopkins tells the woman with him to "go down and distract the guard". She immediately asks: "What if he's gay?" (Fortunately he wasn't).
- In Cannonball Run II the mafia get The Sheik to stop his car so they can kidnap him by the simple expedient of having a showgirl open her blouse as he drives past.
- In the far superior Gumball Rally, Mike Bannon is behind at the very end of the race, so he invokes "Emergency Plan Alpha" to distract Franco Bertollini into pulling over and letting him pass and therefore win the race. "Emergency Plan Alpha" is this extremely well built blonde (played by Linda Vaughn) standing by the side of the road in short and tight clothing.
- In Black Robe, Annuka actually has sex with the guard to distract him (not to mention clobbering him in the face with a piece of wood).
- Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway) in Get Smart gets into the party at the Kristik's house by showing some leg to the guard at the door. And then showing some leg to Kristik (and his guests) to keep him distracted while Max searches the house.
- In The Mummy, Evelyn kisses Imhotep so that his spell will stop working and the plane Rick O'Connell is in can land.
- In the City Hunter film with Jackie Chan, the group of protagonists sends one of the Buxom is Better girls to distract a male mook, only for said mook to punch her in the gut and chase instead one of the male characters.
- In Duel to the Death, a female ninja whips off her clothes in the middle of a fight with a Shaolin monk, who averts his gaze and is then defeated.
- Hilariously subverted in The Naked Gun 33 1/3rd. Tanya, who wants to get the guard away from the envelopes with all the academy awards in them, tries showing some leg... and some cleavage... and spinning the straps of her dress around like helicopter blades... to no avail. Finally she tries to play with bubble wrap seductively. The guard strolls over as if hypnotized... shoes her away and proceeds to happily play with the bubble wrap.
- In To Catch a Thief, the protagonist, John Robie is escaping from the police in a speedboat, driven by a pretty girl. When a police plane appears looking for him, he hides in a chamber, and instructs her to wave to the plane "as if you're a pretty girl out for a ride". She pulls up her skirt to show her knees and waves. Robie says: "Not that pretty. We want to get rid of him."
- Parodied in Euro Trip: at some point, the girl of the group tries to get a ride in the highway flashing the drivers, but since it is in Europe (where they have lesbians selling orange juice in TV commercials) nobody stops (even when she's completely topless and jumping up and down repeatedly)... until someone makes the Butt Monkey of the group show some ass.
- In Hellraiser: Hellbound, this is what Kristy does to her depraved uncle Frank when she sees him in hell. He catches her, holding a knife to her and tries to rape her. She ends up kissing him, causing him to stop restraining her. It apparently distracted him enough for her to be able to figure out how to destroy him (throwing his blanket into the fire, causing him to burn).
- In the second National Treasure movie, Abagail and Gates have to search the US President's antique Resolute desk. Abagail gets them into the Oval Office via a White House staff member she's dating, then pretends to lose an earring which they both crawl about on the floor trying to find, while Gates secretly checks out the desk. The staff member 'finds' the earring, and when Abagail sees Gates still needs more time, she begins to snog him passionately to show her 'gratitude', much to the bemusement of her ex-boyfriend Gates.
- The title vigilante Action Girl in Coffy does this quite a bit in order to get close to her targets or put them off guard. To be fair, Pam Grier is very easy on the eyes.
- Accidentally invoked in Mrs. Doubtfire by the cross-dressing Robin Williams, who is just leaning over to fix his stocking when the bus to his apartment pulls up, which leads to the elderly driver flirting with "her" several times.
- Escape to Athena (1979). The POW's put on a variety act for their German guards, the climax of which is a strip show by an interned female USO performer. While the Germans are busy leering over her performance, the Greek Resistance sneak up and take them all prisoner.
- In Ninja in the Dragon's Den, it's established that Chinese sorcery requires pure thoughts, or it backfires. While facing a sorcerer, the Chinese hero throws him some pornography, which interrupts his spell. A little later, the Chinese hero disrobes the Japanese hero's wife. Her breasts shoot yellow energy rays at the sorcerer, causing him to go apoplectic.
- James Bond
- For Your Eyes Only. When James Bond is infiltrating The Dragon's residence in Spain, one of the owner's own harem girls provides the distraction he needs by chosing that moment to smooch with one of the guards.
- In Octopussy, James Bond is captured and held at gunpoint in the back of a moving truck. Driving by is a pretty girl (his ally) in who reveals her thighs, distracting the guards so Bond can escape.
- In The Living Daylights, knowing that a guard is coming he turns to a girl, tears her bathrobe off as she screams, and then has her face the door, distracting the guard for a few seconds when he enters.
- There's a somewhat humorous variation in the most recent film adaptation of Around the World in Eighty Days. Monique flirts with Fogg by showing some leg, but since it's the Victorian era all this really amounts to is showing off her ankle.
- A standard tactic of the Angels in Angels Revenge.
- Tormented (the 2009 English film, not the 1960 film). Tasha attempts to stop Mullet from killing her by flirting with him after she tries to run and falls into an open grave, leading to her saying something like this:
Tasha: Look, look, I'm sorry! I'm really sorry! We were just joking around! I always liked you, it was the others who didn't like you! Actually, I kind of... kind of... fancied you! I wanted to go out with you but i was too scared, too scared to ask, and thats the truth, ok? I wanted to go out with you... and... maybe... and maybe its not too late!
(Mullet appears behind her and decapitates her with a shovel)
- Also subverted in Munich when the Israelis track down a female assassin who killed one of their own. The woman tries slipping off her blouse to expose her breasts, but is shot at that precise moment.
- Raw Deal has a scene where a Mafia mook is sitting in his car, gaping at the sight of a female jogger Gainaxing towards him. She leans down with a big smile, sticks a gun in his face and suggests he go tell the drug house he's guarding that he needs to take a leak. With the sentry taken care of, detectives come out of the woodwork and pull a crash-bang-gotcha on the occupants.
- In Dracula: Dead and Loving It, vampire Lucy attempts to use her sexy on Harker, to seduce him into vampirism.
Harker: But Lucy, I'm British!
Lucy: (exposing her cleavage) So are these!
- In Diva, Alba, a young lady, is shoplifting lp records in a store, sneaking them into a hidden compartment in a portfolio case. When a clerk asks to examine the case, he only finds several nude photos of her, and hands it back with embarrassed apologies.
- In Yesterday Was a Lie, Hoyle persuades a male physics student to spill secrets to her by sitting in front of him in a miniskirt and crossing her legs.
Literature
Live-Action TV
- This was Ginger's main purpose on Gilligan's Island. She even had her own theme music for whenever she did it.
- Doctor Who
- "The Doctor Dances": Rose references this trope and resigns herself to doing it. However, Jack points out that the person they're going to distract is a) a friend of his and b) gay. He then volunteers to do the distracting himself, and adds, "Don't wait up."
- In "The Doctor's Daughter", Jenny seduces a guard to get his weapon. She just flirts with him and snogs him, not taking anything off- the tight T-shirt rendering it somewhat not required... Subverted in the same episode, where Donna suggests using her "feminine wiles" later on. The Doctor says to save them for an emergency, clearly deeming the situation as not one. Mind you, some consider Ms. Tate a Christmas Cake.
- According to Rory, Amy passed her driving exam with the help of a short skirt.
- Dukes Of Hazzard: Daisy Duke existed just for this purpose.
- Averted in Firefly when the crew is being held captive and needs a distraction to enact an escape attempt. Jayne is the scruffy mercenary. Zoe is the hot Action Girl. Wash is Zoe's husband.
Jayne: We need a diversion. I say Zoe gets naked.
Wash: No.
Jayne: ...I could get naked.
All: NO!
- Even funnier when you learn that Adam Baldwin, who plays Jayne, used to do softcore porn.
- Sydney Bristow did this a lot in Alias, before either knocking her victim out herself or having someone else do it.
- Stargate SG-1
- The female members of the SGC did this to pheromone-controlled Airmen to escape from their cells and regain control of the base in the episode "Hathor".
- In the episode "1969", O'Neill has Carter try to get someone to pull over; she doesn't show any leg, but O'Neill does insist that she go out and do it alone. This is subverted, however, in that it doesn't work. Teal'c decides that "This method is ineffective" and gets a ride by walking out into the middle of the road in front of a van.
- Stargate Atlantis
- Then in the episode "Trio", when Carter, McKay, and Dr. Keller are trapped in an abandoned mine, McKay tries unsuccessfully to convince Carter that the pubescent boys outside will be more willing to get help for them if she flashes her breasts.
- Subverted another time, when McKay needs Weir to "distract" Billy Lee so that he can access his computer. She asks "how?" Then after a Description Cut (sorta), we see Lee saying, "I gotta say, I have never met a woman this into World of Warcraft."
- Parodied on Lizzie McGuire. To rescue Gordo from a gathering of "Dwarf Lord" players (basically a D&D parody), Miranda flirts with the student guarding the door so Lizzie can ambush him and steal his costume.
- A typical activity of the female agents in Mission: Impossible. Especially the season 1 two-parter "Old Man Out" which not only featured two female IMF agents acting as rivals to distract a guard, but then getting into one of the longest catfights ever shown on TV to keep him distracted.
- On a Thanksgiving episode of Friends, the girls cheat at football by flashing the guys. Subverted when the guys cover their eyes when the girls do it.
- Burn Notice
- In an episode, Michael's narration both references this trope and gives a more plausible alternative:
"Most people think that distracting a group of guys is best done by a beautiful woman. The problem with beautiful women is that people want them to stick around, which can cause a lot of problems. Obnoxious guys, they just want to get rid of."
- Though Burn Notice plays it straight most of the time. If Fiona's not making bombs, she's chatting up Mooks. To be fair, the main purpose of both Fiona and Sam on missions is to be the distraction.
- Jess in The Real Hustle. The opening credits call her the "Sexy Swindler" for a reason.
- And of course Stacie pulls this trick several times in Hustle, notably in a scene where she distracts several middle-aged security guards by posing as a flirtatious art student in a short pleated tartan skirt.
- On Leverage both Parker and Sophie often play this role with Sophie being more emotionally seductive while Parker simply relies on her looks. Tara however takes this to a whole new level with a much more direct approach to get inside a hotel room by pretending to be Naked People Trapped Outside.
- Star Trek: Enterprise. In "Babel One", Shran uses his second-in-command Talas, a Blue-Skinned Space Babe in Pink Lingerie, to distract the MACO guard outside his quarters ("Andorian women are permitted one final conquest before their wedding. I've never had relations with a member of your species. I was hoping you'd indulge me.") The guard doesn't fall for it and knocks out Shran when he tries using the diversion to jump him, whereupon Talas knocks out the guard instead.
- In The Sarah Connor Chronicles episode "Automatic For The People," Cameron dons a low-cut top to attract the attention of power plant's security guards during a pool game, so she can scan their security cards. It proves quite effective at being distracting, too...
- The Equalizer. Robert McCall and Mickey Kostmeyer get past a posh hotel's commissionaire by sending in a strippergram, then slipping inside while the shocked employee is trying to make her put her clothes back on and leave.
- Aneka, of Kröd Mändoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire, is... remarkably willing to do this for pretty much any reason and, unlike most examples, she follows through. Much to the dismay of her boyfriend ("You gave it up for the time of day? We were standing under a clock!")
- This was actually used as bait rather than a distraction in an episode of the Sentai series Fiveman. Since the monster of the day tunnels through the ground to capture victims and especially likes leggy females, Five Yellow dons a short skirt and prances around getting it to follow her right into the trap they set for it.
- In fact this is a whole ability in Sentai which refered to something like "Cute techniques" where female characters beauty is literally weaponized. Often a just sexy wink from the Pink member is too much for the Mooks to handle and they fall straight over.
- Star Trek: The Next Generation
- "Unification". Riker runs into difficulties with an Obstructive Bureaucrat called Dokachin, so he asks Counsellor Troi for help. This seems natural enough, as Troi is an empath who's done this sort of thing before. The moment Dokachin sees Troi, however, he instantly deduces Riker's real plan.
Dokachin: He probably figures that we don't get to see a lot of handsome women out this way. And someone like you might get a little more cooperation from me. (Troi starts to deny it) He's probably right.
- Happens in reverse in one episode ("Angel One") where they come upon a planet where the women are the rulers and men are the servants. Riker dresses in a very thin and mostly mostly bare-chested tunic to get on the good side of the matriarch of the society.
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer
- Cordelia did this a couple of times to help Xander out. In "Innocence", when she accompanies him to the military base so he can get the rocket launcher, and in "Killed by Death," when she distracts a hospital security guard while Xander looks for some files.
- Averted in the Angel episode "Waiting in the Wings":
Cordelia: You want I should distract him? Make with the nice-nice while you slip by?
Angel: Don't be stupid. I'm that guy, and the most beautiful woman I've ever seen is making eyes at me? It's either a bachelor party or a scam.
- Honey, I Shrunk The Kids has a couple such moments.
- One was in the episode "Honey, It's Doomsday" where an asteroid was headed for Earth. A Drill Sergeant Nasty retired general is prepared to blow it up, but Wayne had discovered that there were people living on it. In an attempt to stop the general's plans... well, here's the dialog that leads up to the scene:
Diane: I have to appeal to him on a higher level. Amy: That would mean the red dress. (beat) Diane: The red dress. Got it.
- The result is Diane performing "Hey Big Spender" in said dress... with full orchestral accompaniment somehow.
- The other example is in "From Honey, with Love": One of the gadgets Wayne produces for the Canadian secret agent he's working with is a hat that, when donned and activated, hypnotizes onlookers into seeing the wearer as an attractive blonde in a bikini, allowing anyone to distract their opponents this way.
- In the Australian mini-series For the Term of His Natural Life a female convict seduces the duty officer in order to get him out of the way for a convict escape attempt; unfortunately a musket discharges and the officer races back to see what's wrong — as it turns out his marines have the situation under control by the time he gets back.
- In the Quantum Leap episode "The Right Hand of God", Sam leaps into a boxer in the 1950s, and convinces his girlfriend to distract his opponent by streaking at a critical moment so he can get in a knockout punch.
- In one episode of Married... with Children, the Bundys are challenged to a bowling game. Kelly turns up late and Peggy yells at her for not doing her part. Then she takes off her coat...
- In an episode of Dark Angel, Max is trapped in a cell with a young cult member who uses his telekinetic abilities to keep her in check — until she flashes him, breaking his hold and freeing her to knock him out cold ("Made you look!"). Coincidentally, the episode's name is "Exposure." (She also flashes Normal in an earlier episode, but for different reasons.)
- American Idol
- This more or less describes Haley Scarnato's entire run.
- And the aptly-named "Bikini Girl". They actually didn't bother calling her anything else on the show. And Kara got jealous. YA RLY.
- On Boardwalk Empire an authoritative "beach matron" combs the beaches of Atlantic City, fining girls 10 dollars each for wearing skirts that were too low. Showing too much leg was actually a punishable offense in 1921. Angela's new friend Louise is forced to cover up her shapely legs with a towel, causing a group of raucous boys on the beach to cry out in dismay as she does.
- Alluded to by the MythBusters. When every (mostly-)legal way to beat police speed radar they try fails, Kari comments that if you want to get out of a speeding ticket, "short skirts and crying are still the way to go".
Music
- The cover of Roger Waters' "The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking" shows a woman who has taken this a bit far. She's nude but for a tiny backpack and trying to flag down a ride.
Music Videos
- Toni Braxton's "He Wasn't Man Enough" includes a small animation at the beginning in which she is a superheroine. In it, she bedazzles a band of male enemies by, ahem, unzipping her very tight jumpsuit midchest, giving her the time to finish them off with her voice attack.
Myths & Religion
- When a justifiably annoyed Menelaus found his erring wife in the flaming ruins of Troy, Helen merely uncovered her breasts and he promptly forgot he'd ever been angry with her.
- Norse Mythology: Loki once shapeshifted into a horse in order to distract a stallion. Bore him a few children, too.
Pro Wrestling
- Pretty much omnipresent in wrestling; nearly every female manager or valet has, at one time or another and generally on a regular basis, used her... *ahem* assets to distract her client's opponent, the Easily-Distracted Referee, or both.
- The most famous instance of this was probably when Miss Elizabeth did it at the very first SummerSlam. It probably surprised everyone too, since as the (Real Life and later Kayfabe)) wife and manager of Randy Savage, she was known for her impeccably ladylike behavior while wearing blouses, long skirts, and Opera Gloves. But when Savage and Hulk Hogan (known at that time as the "Mega Powers") needed to pick up a victory over Ted DiBiase and Andre the Giant in a tag match, Elizabeth had no problem with ripping off her skirt to expose her legs and bright red panties and distract the enemy long enough for her husband and the Hulkster to get the win. It is interesting to note that Elizabeth was a Face when she did this, and that she remained a Face afterward.
- This was pretty much all Stacy Keibler did during her time in wrestling, usually by slowwwly ducking herself between the middle and top ring ropes when entering or exiting. Given that her legs are forty two inches long, who can complain?
Tabletop Games
- Weaponized in GURPS with the "Sexy Feints" perk.
Video Games
- In the game Red Ninja: End of Honor, the female main character can use this maneuver to distract guards. It never works when you really need it to, and is alarmingly easy at other times.
- In the fighting game Killer Instinct, one of Orchid's Finishing Move is to flash her breasts at her opponent, who then has a heart attack and dies. Seriously.
- The Succubus' Seduce ability in World of Warcraft "stuns" the target. Bonus points because the Succubus' has to channel the spell.
- Extra bonus points because it works on any humanoid that isn't immune to crowd control. Including females.
Web Comics
- Distraction Damsel from Supermegatopia, whose only superpower was causing timely wardrobe malfunctions (usually her own) or otherwise distracting bad guys (and good guys, and Innocent Bystanders...) with her "assets".
- Painfully subverted in this Brat-Halla strip, where we see the Norse goddess Hel (who is a rotting corpse from the waist down) do this. Not a pretty picture. Of course, the intent in this case was to subdue Balder's Raging Stiffie...
- Gina once distracted someone holding her at gunpoint in AppleGeeks by flashing her breasts. The gunwoman was stunned into submission.
- Subverted in Girl Genius, where Princess Zulenna attempts this (confidently saying "it always works"), only to find the one guard that isn't impressed. An annoyed Zulenna clubs him. Very hard.
- One of the established military tactics on Erfworld is the "Flash"◊.
- It does always work in this Shortpacked! strip.
- Molly, of all people, attempts this while hitchhiking in this The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob! strip, but the fact that she's covered with fur proves a hindrance.
- Seraphim pulls it on Asmodeus in this MegaTokyo.
- The Order of the Stick subverts this so often it becomes a running gag. See here and here.
- Parodied in this strip◊.
- Sluggy Freelance
- In Ctrl+Alt+Del, Lilah uses this to make Ethan stop being obsessed with Everquest 2. She calls it a "level eighty female-only persuasion spell". (Which seriously overestimates the time and training it takes to pull it off.)
- In Impure Blood Elnor's means during the escape.
- During the Crossover Wars, a flirty sexy witch from an adult comic was used to distract Deception so he could be blasted and taken out of the battle.
Web Original
- In lonelygirl15, this is something of a speciality of Sarah's.
- Lampshaded in "Shop of Horrors!!!", when Jonas explains how Sarah is going to "distract the store owner with, uh, a long conversation", and the camera immediately pans to Sarah's breasts. Sarah responds "What? I'm just doing my job!"
Western Animation
- Inverted somewhat in the Batman/Superman Movie, wherein Harley Quinn hijacks Lex Luthor's car, then drives to where The Joker is waiting for her with his leg exposed.
- On The Simpsons, Marge once distracted Chief Wiggum by flashing her (temporarily surgically enhanced) breasts. Which Krusty referred to as "Mugumbos". Which happened to be the control word for Stampy the Elephant.
- In a Flashback Episode of DuckTales, a young Scrooge McDuck is shown having trouble hitchhiking after arriving in America, until he lifts his kilt, drawing a young lady's coach over.
- In a fourth season-episode of Kim Possible, Shego does this to distract Martin Smarty while Dr. Drakken carries out his plan of creating a legion of robotic soldiers. This episode also proves that she's a gold-digger, as she considers marrying Martin Smarty just to get in on his wealth, only changing her mind when she realized he had a kid.
- In Tiny Toon Adventures: How I Spent My Vacation, Plucky Duck briefly and inexplicably transforms his leg into a beautiful woman's leg in order to stop a passing car.
- Lampshaded and inverted on at least two levels in the Futurama movie "Into the Wild Green yonder" where the Feministas, trying to escape from a women's prison, dress up Bender to look like a hooker in an attempt to distract the guards. Not only are the guards NOT distracted, but if it had been any of the actual women rather than Bender they'd be dead, riddled with bullets. More likely it didn't work because it was Bender in a PaperThin bad drag outfit. Would you have been fooled? More a subversion of the The Guards Must Be Crazy.
- In the South Park episode Asspen the Jerkass skier is distracted allowing Stan to win the race when a girl flashes her breasts at him. However, it later reveals that her breasts are two hideously mutated heads, a Shout Out to the film Total Recall.
- Bugs Bunny and various other Warner Brother's characters would do this, while crossdressing.
- In the Mummy episode of Courage the Cowardly Dog, The mommy needed to go to Courage house, and lifted the bandages on his leg, to show an actual female leg with High Heel included.
- The Terry Toons Mighty Mouse short, "Wolf!, Wolf!" has a male example with one of the wolves dressing up as Litte Bo Peep showing off his leg, and the wolves laugh in retaliation.
- The entire point of Catwoman's "dance" in DC Showcase: Catwoman.
- The Joker, of all people, pulls this off while acting like a hitch-hiker to stop Lex Luthor's car (driven by Harley Quinn) to pick him up in the Superman Animated Series episode "World's Finest."
- Fairly common in Golden Age cartoons.
Real Life
- Mata Hari, a spy during World War I, is rumored to have attempted stripping when she was in front of the firing squad for her execution, apparently on the belief that no one could shoot a body like hers. It didn't work, but it's not like she had a better option at that point.
- According to naval folklore, Royal Navy chiefs when rousting sailors to work would say that. If the leg was female(I.E. a Sweet Polly Oliver ) she was left be.
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