Unprovoked Pervert Payback - Television Tropes & Idioms

"She beats everybody up for literally no reason. At least in some of these shows, there's a pretense, like, he may have accidentally peeked on her in the bathroom. There was no intent there, but he did peek on her in the bathroom. I'm not excusing that, but it was like in this show if they were walking down the same side of the street and she was like, 'Did you peek at me in the bathroom?!' and he would be like, 'Wh-who are you?!' "

—Dave Riley, Fast Karate For The Gentlemen We Cracked the Case!

Closely related to — and generally intended to follow — the Accidental Pervert, the Unprovoked Pervert Payback is a violent maneuver in which an offended girl screams "PERVERT!" and pounds the crap out of a guy for....smiling at her, or any other of a hundred other things that are meant to be accidental pervyness, but just aren't. Hell the chances are that nothing dirty happened, at all, or even close to it. Tough luck for the guy though because he's suddenly an Accidental Pervert and ground-zero for the (self)righteous bitchslap of his life!

NOTE: This staple of Harem Anime is closely related to Pervert Revenge Mode but has the twist of being completely unwarranted, rather than just undeserved. This is where the producers intended to have an Accidental Pervert joke but failed to include anything remotely identifiable as perversion (boob grab, getting a faceful of female chest, etc). Often this moment is so badly constructed that the slap comes after everyone concerned knows that nothing perverted happened.

This trope can also be invoked by any girl causing the innocent man (generally quite some distance away and in full view) to get jumped and beaten up for no reason. Tsunderes who engage in this behavior too often are sometimes classified by fans as "failed tsunderes".

No Real Life examples, please!!!

Examples

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There was a commercial not too long back in which, through a convoluted series of misfortunes, a man ends up falling out of his bedroom window and landing at the feet of a female jogger. She promptly sprays him with mace for absolutely no reason other than he was within range.
One commercial had a guy with a map walk up to a woman waiting for the bus. He is about to ask for directions when she immediately maces him, emptying the entire can into his face. And then, while he is lying on the ground in agony, she blows a rape whistle while repeatedly tazering him. It was an ad for a hand held GPS.

Anime & Manga

Vandread does this once with the main character bumping into a girl and then getting slapped for being a pervert.
The Sacred Blacksmith — Satirised:
Luke: You're sorry? You have a wardrobe malfunction and beat the crap out of me, and you expect sorry is gonna cut it?
- And a "sorry" is more than most victims of this trope get afterward.
In an episode of Minami-ke, Natsuki is accidentally knocked forward into Haruka, grabbing her breast in the process. Haruka, for her part, is perfectly aware that it was accidental. However, the incident occurred in front of her entire class so she still has to punch him for the sake of appearances.
There are many incidents of this trope in Love Hina, too.
- In one chapter, Naru punches Keitaro when he walks in on her changing. Later in the same chapter, she walks in on him changing, and he's still the one who gets punched.
- One time, she tries to hit Keitaro on the grounds that he must be thinking something perverted.
  - Another time, Tama-chan the turtle has gone missing, and Naru and Keitaro are looking for it. Shinobu has just got home and is changing her clothes, when she is scared by Tama-chan and comes running up to them clad only in her camisole, grabbing Keitaro in panic. He's too busy trying not to choke to notice her, yet Naru still hits him "just in case".
Girls Bravo: Occurs in the first episode, and on other occasions as well.
In the Onsen Episode of Asu no Yoichi!, Chihaya jokingly tells main guy Yoichi he should bathe with her and her sisters. Everyone (That is, Yoichi and the sisters) stare in disbelief for a second before Tsundere Izumi hits... Yoichi, on the basis he might have been thinking something perverted, even though he was just as shocked as the girls were. And Chihaya, who actually said the perverted comment? Nothing happens to her, not even a "Don't say those things, you might give him ideas!" or something.
Touma of To Aru Majutsu no Index is very good at accidentally walking in on girls changing. This leads to a few examples in the second season where he does absolutely nothing out of the ordinary and still ends up bitten by a furious Index.
Rebuild of Evangelion: This time Asuka is on the receiving end of the toothpick scene, and Shinji happens to witness it. Being a true Tsundere, she slowly realizes why he's blushing, and responds by kicking him in the face and calling him a "stupid pervert". All while stark naked, of course.
Seitokai no Ichizon ends up falling into this, as Ken acts extremely perverted and deserving of the payback. However, he soon shows himself to be a much nicer and more caring person than he first appears, and even though the girls know this, he's constatly receiving a lot of abuse. One egregious example comes from the episode where he has to take care of the Wise Beyond Their Years little sister of the newspaper club president. She pulls out some dolls and starts playing with them, but gives them a rather perverted story. She then tells him to join in, which he reluctantly does. As soon he says ONE line, the girls jump in and start lynching him and saying he's a bad influence on the little sister, even though they were around the whole time. This case was an invocation, as the little girl was intentionally probing at their jealousy: The girls are all attracted to him to some extent, but can't actually admit it and thus blame him. Of course, this doesn't stop the girls from looking like they have a personal vendetta against Ken and are looking for excuses to berate him, since nobody normal would have blamed him for this, invoked or not.
Happens in Digimon Frontier; two of the Tamers fall down a pit into a heap leading to the following exchange:
Zoe: I'm alive! I could just kiss you!
Takuya: Uh...
Zoe: O.O (slaps him) Get offa me!!
Takuya: You're the one who grabbed me in the first place!!!
Thankfully averted in Magikano, where whenever Ayumi gets close to Haruo, Maika pretty much gives her a piece of her mind. This is a Slapstick Knows No Gender kind of series, after all.
Same goes for Rosario + Vampire, which actually has the girls hit each other simply to get to closer to Tsukune.
A particularly egregious one happens in the second season of Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu. Aiko shows the main cast, girls included, her new cellphone. She then explains clearly it can mix and match voice bites to make new sentences. Akihisa says a perfectly normal phrase in front of everyone and Aiko uses it right there to make it sound like Akihisa just said something naughty. Somehow, that makes Minami and Mizuki, who were present the entire time and clearly should know what's going on as they were paying attention, completely buy that's something Akihisa has said and take him off to painfully torture him. What. The. Hell.
- The entire second season is filled with this, as well as the male characters being tortured for anything that offends the girls. The closing credits has the male characters fleeing in terror from the kanji for female. Though the first season was worse at points.
Mayo Chiki! ends running into this by default, as main guy Kinjirou has gynophobia or fear of GIRLS, yet other characters are quick to forget this. Even then, there's one instance that stands out: the very naughty, perverted and dominant Kanade is on top of the table and leaning on top of a sitting down Kinjirou, trying to kiss him as he tries to avoid her lips, when her female Battle Butler Subaru walks into the room and yells at Kinjirou "What are you doing at Mistress Kanade?", even though it was impossible to think anything but that Kanade was the one being a pervert here, as it was extremely obvious! And yes, Subaru is fully aware of Kanade being pervy and Kinjirou scared of women, so it seems someone slipped one Idiot Ball into her pocket before that scene. Or twelve.
In Maken-Ki!, Takeru and Kengo are being chased by a bear during the Maken-Ki's visit to a hot spring. The bear quickly catches up with them and knocks them into the sky, and when they start coming down, it's on the girls' side of the bath. Kodama and Azuki, reflexively thinking the boys are peeping on them while they are bathing, respond by intercepting the two in mid-air with a kick that knocks them right back into the bear's path!
- That's in the anime. In the manga they instead RUN into the girls' side of the bath to hide from the bear and "accidentally" fondle Haruko and Kodama's chests, making their payback completely justified.
Guilty Crown: Shuu's alone in a room wearing only a towel, when Ayase suddenly enters without knocking or anything, which scares Shuu and makes him drop the towel, but he tries to cover himself. Somehow, that makes it perfectly justified for Ayase to scream and slap him!
During episode 2 of Maji De Watashi Ni Koi Shinasai, the five girls are lounging in the bath, and catch sight of a dog they were hired to catch. They proceed to chase after it, butt naked all five of them, and eventually come crashing into Yamato's room. Yamato, who was minding his own business, is beaten to a pulp for just being there. Even worse considering one of them is Miyako, who is a pervert and a tease, so she has no business doing something like this.
Calipha in One Piece takes this concept to its logical extreme: As a Running Gag, she accuses her boss Spandam of sexual harassment from things that are not even remotely related to it, such as talking to her. At one point, she calls him out on sexual harassment for just standing there, doing absolutely nothing at all.
Calipha: Sir?
Spandam: Yes?
Calipha: That's sexual harassment
High School D×D is one of the very few anime out there that subverts this trope despite high amounts of Fanservice. The shining example would have to be Koneko wanting to make out with Issei and Rias walks in. Issei expected that he was going to get smacked by Rias, but instead Rias just takes a look at Koneko's condition and says that she's sick. The only time Issei even gets beaten is if he actively does anything perverted.
- Sadly played straight in the DVD extras, where an obvious accident involving Marshmallow Hell with Rias and Asia means Koneko gets to smash his head like a watermelon. Then again, the extra was a large Out-of-Character Moment for everyone.

Comics

In one issue of Futurama comics, Leela has been split into her baby, teen, and elderly selves. Her teen form gains a crush on Fry, and starts flirting with him, causing Leela to hit him even though he's clearly uncomfortable with a teen flirting with him.

Fanfic

Very common in fanfics featuring characters that are already Tsunderes in canon, due to flanderization. Akane from Ranma ½ gets treated this way particularly often.

Films — Live-Action

In The Wizard (basically a feature-length Nintendo advertisement):
- The girl is able to get rid of the private detective that has caught up to the runaway kids by pointing and screaming, loudly proclaiming that "He touched my breast!" The man is a good 30 feet away from her and currently engaged in a struggle with one of the boys (why no one bats an eye at that is anyone's guess). He obviously hasn't touched her, but two security guards grab him, beat him into submission, throw handcuffs on him and carry him off. They don't even detain the kids to find out what he supposedly did to her or who they are.
- Followed by a bunch of truckers who just happened to show up outside the city limits...
Big Lead Trucker: So you touched her breast, huh?
Cue Curb-Stomp Battle.

Video Games

An optional scene in Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World has Emil, a Rare Male Example of a Shrinking Violet, bathing alone in thermal waters. While he's there, Genki Girl and openly in love for him Marta enters the bath, which causes him to scream in surprise. Upon hearing him, the entire playable cast of the first game but Lloyd come checking out what's going on. Despite all of them knowing how Emil and Marta are, they all instantly start berating Emil and calling him a pervert, and when Marta tries to say that, yes, she was the one that entered the bath and the perverted one, they tell her to shut up and not make excuses for Emil. Yes, even the cool and rational Regal, Presea and Raine instantly believe the shy guy tried to sneak into the bath of the energetic girl and not the other way around and that's totally why he was the one that screamed!
- Oh, and just to drive the point home, the only one that believes Emil is Lloyd, and that's because Lloyd got caught in two Accidental Pervert moments and considers this to be the same. Except in those cases Lloyd DID look like a pervert, unlike with Emil where it's just absurd.
The school camping trip scene in Persona 4 contains this trope, while Yosuke at least can be blamed for both hitting on Chie and Yukiko and calling them childish, the player character can actually be more complimentary in a way that can get on the one of the girl's good side. Regardless your given the options of agreeing that Chie and Yukiko are "fine" or disagreeing, it's a lose-lose situation because no matter what you're pushed OFF A CLIFF, into freezing water. The real kicker is that Kanji, who really said nothing the whole scene is pushed into the water because he gets a nosebleed, thus he must be punished because nosebleeds are only caused by perverted thoughts.
- Persona 3 and 4 have other instances of this trope involving hot springs which is even worse because it usually has to do with the girls getting the time schedules mixed up or some other wacky misunderstanding that is exclusively their fault. Of course they always blame the guys for being lecherous little schemers even though, with the exception of Yosuke and Junpei, they don't really care and just want to relax in the springs.
  - At least The Anime of the Game for 4 has Yukiko realize in middle of the misunderstanding SHE messed up with the schedules, but she continues insulting the guys anyway. Yukiko is possibly the nicest, most sensible girl in the cast.