Moments where a character has to hide the warning signs of abuse at the hands of parents/guardians and mean teachers from authority figures and friends in Live-Action TV.
- And Then There Were None (2015) changes Blore's crime of false testimony against a frail man to beating him to death for being arrested on a charge of "degeneracy" (i.e., being homosexual in public). When the gramophone record charges Blore with the murder, Blore claims that the man "fell down the steps to his cell."
- In the Angel episode "Destiny", Spike and Angel have a massive brawl. Upon returning, when Angel shows up bloody and bruised, Fred asks, "What happened?!", and his response is, "I fell down some stairs. Big stairs." When Spike shows up later looking very similar, Fred's response is, "Stairs, huh?"
- Arrow. In "Crucible", Oliver Queen shows up at a Queen Consolidated investor party right after taking on a gang armed with automatic weapons as the Arrow, and their host calls him on the fact that he has blood on his face. Felicity Smoak unconvincingly tries to pass it off as this trope.
- In As Time Goes By, Lol Ferris—the amiable gardener at the country house—insists that he fell over to explain his bruised face. Jean, a former nurse, notes that he should have bruised hands if that were the case. In truth, the obnoxious, posh, townie weekenders incited their younger fellows to beat him up after he shouted at them for driving their ATVs through his garden. Jean and Lionel threaten to buy some dogs specifically to set on them.
- In an episode of the new Battlestar Galactica, Baltar uses this "excuse" to explain the rather grisly injury he gets when he is attacked in a bathroom and gets his throat cut. With the razor he was using to shave his Beard of Sorrow.
- Part of a deception that wasn't recognized as such: both versions of Being Human's resident ghost. She believes she actually fell down the stairs in an accident which results in her death, and the reveal sends her into BSOD-mode.
- One Very Special Episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 had a girl who worked on a fashion show with Kelly. She was, like Ellie in the Degrassi example, a cutter. She blamed it on a new kitten.
- In the Blackadder episode "Dish and Dishonesty", he fixes the result of an election by taking the place of the only eligible voter (who "accidentally brutally cut his head off while combing his hair"), and also replacing the returning officer, who "accidentally brutally stabbed himself in the stomach while shaving."
- In The Borgias, Cesare has just murdered his former brother-in-law, Giovanni Sforza by stabbing him through the hand, through the neck and then about ten more times in the torso, and Rodrigo tries to explain that Giovanni had an "accident" where "He fell...on a knife...which... Cesare happened to be holding". His voice trails off as he realises just how completely ridiculous this sounds.
- The Brady Bunch: With Greg in Season 5's "Out of This World", who had a bandage on his chin and Alice makes it a point to ask him to explain. In Barry Williams' autobiography Growing Up Brady, he explains that he had been involved in a car accident around the time this episode was filmed in November 1973 – the driver of another car was talking to her dog(!) – and that Sherwood Schwartz suggested the "cut himself shaving" explanation.
- In Breaking Bad, after Combo asks about the hole in the ceiling, Jesse uses the fallen ceiling (from decomposing Emilio in his bathtub with acid) as an excuse for his bruises which he got from Krazy-8.
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer. On seeing two familiar puncture wounds on a corpse's neck in "Help".Xander: Maybe she cut herself shaving and then died naturally of embarrassment.
- Or maybe, tripped and fell on a barbecue fork?
- An episode of Burn Notice used this after a thief falls trying to scale a wall:Gilroy: Unfortunately, our dear Claude didn't survive his injuries.
Michael: He broke his ankle.
Gilroy: There were... complications. - Cannon: In "Scream of Silence", a doctor remarks on the deep wound on a thug's chest. The thug's boss replies "He cut himself shaving" as he hands over enough cash to buy the doctor's silence.
- Castle:
- A particularly impressive example (played for laughs) appears when a knifeman for a local drug cartel blithely insists to Castle and Beckett that his severe injuries — otherwise consistent with a very bad beating — were sustained during a fall. And that his horrifically swollen and near-useless black eye was injured when it connected with a door during the fall. And his mangled hand is the result of him putting his hand out to stop his fall, only for it to get caught in a grate. What makes this a particularly impressive example, however, is that Castle and Beckett actually walked in on him being very badly beaten by a rather pissed off rival member of the local Irish mob.Castle: Well. Thanks for keeping it real.
- In another episode, Castle and Beckett are abducted by government members and questioned about data the government believes them to possess. They are injected in the neck and returned to their car. (It is set up to appear like alien abduction, as this is what their current case looks like.)Esposito: Abducted by government agents, huh? Come on, what were you two really doing?
Beckett: It's not a hickey, Esposito.
Later... Ryan: Hey. Those hickeys?
Esposito: Yes.
Beckett: No.
Castle: I wish.
Ryan: Okay.
- A particularly impressive example (played for laughs) appears when a knifeman for a local drug cartel blithely insists to Castle and Beckett that his severe injuries — otherwise consistent with a very bad beating — were sustained during a fall. And that his horrifically swollen and near-useless black eye was injured when it connected with a door during the fall. And his mangled hand is the result of him putting his hand out to stop his fall, only for it to get caught in a grate. What makes this a particularly impressive example, however, is that Castle and Beckett actually walked in on him being very badly beaten by a rather pissed off rival member of the local Irish mob.
- Averted on Chuck with the bruises, cuts, scratches and scrapes the team—Sarah in particular—receive in the course of their spy work. Not because they're honest with people about where they come from, but because the injuries are never even discussed. Especially glaring in "Chuck Versus the Best Friend" when Sarah's face is covered with butterfly bandages for injuries she took during a particularly brutal fist-fight against the episode's Big Bad. While standing in the middle of the Buy More.
- Deconstructed in The Closer. Raydor suspects one of her officers is being abused by her husband, and the officer offers up these sorts of excuses. Turns out her shitty excuses tip-off Raydor and Brenda that the woman's faking the abuse. Raydor notes that most actual victims of abuse are actually, sadly, quite good at hiding it.
- An unusual semi-real-life example on The Colbert Report: on the first anniversary of falling and breaking his wrist, Stephen Colbert showed up for work with two black eyes and stitches in his face. He explained that after last year's incident, he'd sworn never to break a fall with his hands again. The explanation was a joke, but the injuries are real; as he had been in a sailing accident.
- The Cosby Show: Theo tells his grandfather that the bandage on his ear (from an infected piercing) was from walking into a door. Russell isn't fooled, saying that Cliff tried the same excuse years before.
- Criminal Minds: One episode has the team investigating a missing woman, with her abusive ex-boyfriend as a major suspect. When they talk to the woman's father, he says that the woman told him her injuries had been the result of getting hit by a car while on her bike. Though his tone implies he at least suspected she'd been lying and was just in denial about it.
- CSI: NY:
- Played straight by a serial killer's psychiatrist in "Manhattan Manhunt." When Mac sees a wide scrape on the doctor's cheek, the man first says he cut himself shaving but finally admits that the killer had just done it before leaving his office via the back door - sending Mac and Don flying out after the guy.
- Lampshaded in "Turbulence" when Mac finds blood on a suspect's cuff:
"Is this the point where I say I cut myself shaving?"- Subverted later when it turns out he actually did, or something to that effect; the blood is his.
- Played straight again in a later episode. Sheldon is beat up by thugs hired by someone he knew who wanted him to destroy evidence against the guy's father. He tells Mac he ran into a wall.
- In the Decoy episode "Queen of Diamonds," a woman who was worked over tells the police she was hit by a car.
- The Defenders (2017):
- Daredevil (2015): Matt Murdock invents these sorts of cover stories to explain any visible injuries that show up on his face as a result of his fights as Daredevil.
- In "Rabbit in a Snowstorm," he shows up at the office sporting a bruise over his right eye from his fight with the Russians the night before and claims to Foggy and Karen that he wasn't paying attention and walked into a wall. Foggy and Karen suggest he get a seeing-eye dog.
- In "The Path of the Righteous", Matt is laid up in his apartment, still recovering from being sliced open by Nobu and then beaten up by Wilson Fisk. Although Foggy is mad at finding that Matt has been lying to him for years about his secret life, he still covers for him by claiming to Karen that Matt got into a car accident. When she visits him, he says that he was hit by a Japanese...car, allowing him to tell her a half-truth about what really happened (Nobu is Japanese). And even though Matt's lying about the cause of his injuries, Karen still correctly suspects that Fisk had attacked him.
- By "Bang," the first episode in season 2, Foggy is claiming to Karen that Matt has a drinking problem to explain his constant Daredevil injuries, and he's not too happy with this.Foggy Nelson: You know, Karen's been asking questions. The cuts, the scrapes, the bruises.
Matt Murdock: What do you tell her?
Foggy Nelson: You have a drinking problem.
Matt Murdock: That's horrible.
Foggy Nelson: Well, it's more plausible than "you put on a devil suit and beat the shit out of strangers!" - In the next episode, "Dogs to a Gunfight", while Matt is recuperating from getting shot by the Punisher, Karen drops by to fill him in on the plea deal for Grotto and makes clear that she doesn't really buy Foggy's cover stories:Karen Page: Sometimes I worry about you a little too much.
Matt Murdock: I appreciate it. There's no need to worry.
Karen Page: Yeah, you know that doesn't help, right? You denying that there's anything wrong?
Matt Murdock: Karen—
Karen Page: No, how many times can I hear that you "fell down the stairs" or you "walked into a door"?
Matt Murdock: Well, you know I'm blind—
Karen Page: And you know that I'm not an idiot. [beat] Okay, um, let's say this: when or if you ever feel like you can tell me what's going on with you, I promise that I'm here. Is that a deal?
Matt Murdock: That is a deal.
- Luke Cage (2016): In "Code of the Streets," Cottonmouth visits Pop's Barbershop with Shades and Tone to get a haircut, as a cover story while they search the place for Chico. Pop notices cuts on Cottonmouth's knuckles from when he killed Shameek. Cottonmouth laughs and says "shaving" (while being shaved by Pop, no less). Pop, himself a former street brawler and who ran with Cottonmouth back in the day, isn't fooled for a second and tells Luke such after Cottonmouth leaves.
- Iron Fist (2017): In "Felling Tree with Roots," after Harold Meachum kills two enforcers Madame Gao sent to his penthouse to collect a finger or two as punishment, he cuts off his left pinkie finger to make sure it seems like the enforcers did their job then disappeared. While Harold is using a clawhammer to mutilate the bodies (destroying their teeth so the police can't identify them), Ward shows up, having been summoned by Harold to dump the bodies.Harold Meachum: [cheerfully] Oh, Ward! It's about time! [Ward quickly grabs the nearest wastepaper basket so he can retch, only to freeze up when he sees Harold's severed finger at the bottom, leaving him reduced to dry-heaving] You okay, son? You look a little green. Hey, what happened to your hands?
Ward Meachum: What happened to yours?
Harold Meachum: Oh, uh, kitchen accident.
- Daredevil (2015): Matt Murdock invents these sorts of cover stories to explain any visible injuries that show up on his face as a result of his fights as Daredevil.
- In Degrassi, when Paige walks in while Ellie is cutting herself in the school bathroom, Ellie says she "hit her arm, on the... thing." Given how weak her excuse is, it doesn't work.
- An episode of Degrassi Junior High subverts this: Joey's injured (from his bike) and keeps talking about child abuse (because he catches Rick being abused), so naturally the Children's Aid people assume his parents beat him.
- Dexter:
- On an episode called "Waiting To Exhale," a gangster named "Little Chino" (see former pic) walks into the police station with a scar from when Dexter tried to murder him the previous night and failed. When questioned about it, he paraphrased this tropes title.
- In a season three episode, Dexter explains away a broken hand that he got while escaping from the Skinner by saying that he fell down some stairs.
- An episode of Dick & Dom in da Bungalow featured Geordie copper Harry Batt in his usual weekly appearance being wheeled in on a wheelchair, covered in bandages and casts and neck brace. His answer? He cut himself shaving.
- An episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show had the main character toss a book to his wife, Laura, giving her a shiner. The humor of the episode is derived from everyone believing the main character "slugged" his wife rather than believing the more mundane explanation. The episode ends with Laura tossing a book to Rob (Dick Van Dyke) and giving 'him' a black eye. He is mocked relentlessly.
- In a Very Special Episode of A Different World, Gina's popular boyfriend repeatedly beats her up; she makes excuses like "I got into a fight with this girl" and "I bumped into my desk." When she contradicts herself with one of her excuses, her friends start to get suspicious. Once the news gets out all over school, someone calls the cops when they see him dragging her outside for a "private talk". At the end of the episode, Gina says she's going to file a complaint and he is arrested.
- Doctor Who: In "Boom Town", Cathy Salt questions Margaret Blaine about the number of accidents that have befallen anyone who's tried investigating or speaking out against the Blydd Drwg nuclear power plant project:Cathy Salt: But are you aware of the curse?Margaret Blaine: (looking her up and down with a fixed, fake smile) Whatever do you mean? Cathy, wasn't it?Cathy Salt: Cathy Salt. That's what some of your engineers are saying. That the Blaidd Drwg Project is cursed.Margaret Blaine: Sounds rather silly to me.Cathy Salt: That's what I thought. I was just chasing a bit of local colour. But the funny thing is, when you start piecing it all together, it does begin to look a bit odd...Margaret Blaine: (coldly) In what way?Cathy Salt: The deaths! The number of deaths associated with this project. First of all, there was the entire team of the European Safety Inspectors.Margaret Blaine: But they were French! It's not my fault if "DANGER! EXPLOSIVES!" was only written in Welsh.Cathy Salt: And then there was that accident with the Cardiff Heritage Committee.Cathy Salt: And then the architect?Margaret Blaine: [softly] It was raining, visibility was low. My car simply couldn't stop.Cathy Salt: And then just recently Mr. Cleaver, the government's nuclear advisor?
Margaret Blaine: Slipped on an icy patch.
Cathy Salt: He was decapitated!
Margaret Blaine: It was a very icy patch. - In the Dragnet episode "The Little Victim," the titular infant is beaten by his father. His mother claims he escaped from the apartment and fell downstairs. No one at the hospital is convinced, especially after they see the X-rays showing his bones have been broken before.
- An episode of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman had newcomer Dorothy being examined by Mike, who noticed her many bruises and didn't buy her excuses for any of them. Sure enough, Dorothy eventually admits to being beaten by her husband. A sympathetic Mike reveals that even working with her father in a posh Boston neighborhood, she frequently saw women who had "fallen down the stairs".
- On an episode of ER, a policeman's wife comes in badly hurt by her husband. Some of his coworkers are witnesses, but won't speak against him because of cop code. Benton shows the abuser's lieutenant her medical records, showing that he's been beating her up for years. While the other cops still don't give him up, they do beat the shit out of him with the cover story that he fell while chasing a suspect.
- In Season 3 of Evil, psychiatrist Kurt Boggs is convinced by Leland Townsend to try a satanic ritual to treat his Writer's Block, which among other things involves a variation of Palm Bloodletting (on the back of his hand so he can still type). It works so well that he keeps doing it, to the point that his patient, Kristen, notices the numerous wounds on his hand during a session. When questioned he immediately invokes this trope with a grin, and when pushed on the absurdity of this claim, back-peddles and instead claims he "fell". This causes Kristen to start losing trust in her now evidently lying and self-harming psychiatrist.
- Lampshade Hanging: In the Foyle's War episode "Bleak Midwinter", the detective's offsider is framed for a murder. When he's informed that a search of his house turned up a shirt with blood spattered on the cuff, his response is: "Is this the bit where I'm supposed to say I cut myself shaving?"
- In an episode of Friends, Monica, Chandler, and Ross manage to get backstage at a Hootie and the Blowfish concert, without Joey, Phoebe, and Rachel knowing, during which Monica receives a hickey on her neck from one of the members. When Rachel asks Monica about, she laughs it off nervously with: "Oh... I fell." Rachel cynically asks: "On someone's lips?"
- Fringe: During one Whole Episode Flashback we see a young Olivia Dunham show up at daycare with a black eye from her stepfather hitting her for disobeying him. When asked she claims she got it from running in the house. Walter Bishop, who's running the daycare, clearly doesn't believe it for a second. At the end of the episode Walter confronts the stepfather and makes it clear that if she shows up with any more "accidental" bruises Walter will call Social Services and ask some of his high-placed government contacts to make the man pay.
- Full House, episode "Silent is Not Golden" has the abused child version."I ran into a door. A door named Dad."
- Used as a plot point for an episode of Gilmore Girls. Jess shows up at Friday night dinner with a black eye and won't tell anyone what happened, leading Rory to assume he got in a fight with Dean. Later, when Rory apologizes for the accusation and again asks about the black eye Jess claims he was playing catch with a friend and got hit in the face. Actually, he was attacked by a swan on the way to Richard and Emily's and is embarrassed about it.
- Invoked in The Good Wife episode "The Line". After Cary is arrested, Lemond Bishop tries to have one of his guys on the inside cut one of Cary's fingers off to remind him to keep his mouth shut. However, Cary had just helped the would-be finger-cutter with his own case, and so talks his boss down to giving Cary a gash on the palm of his hand. He tells Cary to say he tripped and fell against the bars, and Cary maintains that story to Alicia and Diane, though they don't believe him.
- Glee: Bieste gets a black eye from a swinging heavy bag...or so she says.
- When Jack Crawford checks in on Mason Verger on Hannibal, Verger assures him that his injuries are only due to slipping and falling while feeding his pigs. This is after the title character has drugged him and convinced him to cut off his own face and eat it.
- In the first Horatio Hornblower TV movie, Hornblower is held down and beaten by another midshipman on his ship (a habitual bully and abuser of the other midshipmen). One of the officers sees his injuries, and he claims that he missed his footing and fell down a causeway (he fell down the stairs). When he continues to deny that anybody else was involved, the officer orders him to stay up in the rigging (exposed to the rather nasty English Channel weather) so that he might "learn to watch his footing".
- House:
- A gangster's head injury is explained by "A tire iron fell on him".
- "He was changing a tire, and it... slipped."
- Played with - In the cold open of a Season 6 episode, a couple is arguing, and it disturbs their neighbour. When the man answers the door, the Woman (Patient of the Week)'s face comes out all bruised. Neighbour assumes the obvious, but it's just a symptom.
- Another episode has the Patient claiming that the abrasions on his knees are from playing flag football. They are in fact, rug burns, from the carpet of the motel where he was shagging his mistress.
- Subverted on House of Payne Malik's classmate Ricky shows up to the Paynes' house with a hickey on his neck claiming that a girl had given him the hickey, it's discovered that the "hickey" was actually from a vacuum cleaner.
- In a rarely-aired episode of I Love Lucy, Lucy gets a black eye accidentally. She jokingly tells Fred and Ethel "Ricky slugged me!" But they believe her, and not her later counter-protestations. This episode had some of the creeeepiest dialogue in the history of the show. "Well, Fred, nobody's going to believe this story. You're probably the only person in history who *actually* got a black eye from walking into a door." Oh, the Fifties — you so crazy!
- Subverted in Justified. Art and Raylan are both law enforcement officers. Art is Raylan's boss. Raylan admits to being an accomplice in an orchestrated mob hit that has already been "solved" by the FBI. Blowing the whistle on Raylan involvement would mean possibly overturning the cases and sentences of every person Raylan has put behind bars, many of whom were on the U.S. Marshals/ FBI's most wanted lists. Still justifiably angry, Art punches Raylan in the face. The next day, Raylan walks into work with obvious bruises to which fellow Marshal Tim Gutterson remarks "Did you fall in Art's shower, too?" alluding to how Art had explained his own bruised knuckles.
- Subverted in the Danish series Langt fra Las Vegas. Casper thinks his father-in-law is abusing his wife, but at the end of the episode, he finds the stone she said she had tripped over.
- Lark Rise to Candleford uses the euphemism "chopping firewood" when Susan Braby is involved in a domestic quarrel with her husband Sam. The trope is subverted though — Susan makes no such excuses for the black eye she has and insists on calling the constable to deal with her assailant. The expression is specific to the time and place, and Flora Thompson's original book explains the origin, which is not elucidated in the TV episode.
- Happens quite frequently on Law & Order (such as in the episode "Family Friend") and its spinoffs. Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, with its habit of It's Personal episodes, has been known to explain away perpetrators' injuries in police custody this way, too. From the episode "Futility":Defense Lawyer: And how did he get hurt between his home and the station house?
Alex Cabot: I don't know, how did he? [looks at Tutuola and Stabler]
Odafin Tutuola: He fell.
Defense Lawyer: Bull.
Alex Cabot: The only injuries I see are Mr. Gardner's torn knuckles from punching Detective Benson in the face, so unless you want to add the assault of a police officer to the list of charges, I suggest you move on. - The Leverage episode "The Order 23 Job" has an abused kid whose parents repeatedly check him into the hospital with this kind of excuse. Fortunately for the kid, Eliot takes offense.
- On Lost, Ana Lucia sarcastically says she cut herself shaving when asked about the cut on her forehead that "Henry" gave her when he tried to kill her.
- Malcolm in the Middle had an interesting case; Reese had a black eye after Malcolm punched him. Being the tough guy he is, when asked by a lady in the store he made up a bad excuse about how he raised his leg during his sleep, hitting his arm and punching himself. However, after seeing the boy's mother, the lady assumes that she's abusing him.
- Al Bundy uses the shaving excuse twice on Married... with Children. The first time was to explain why he had a bandage on his forehead at his and Peg's high school reunion (he used his head to hammer in a nail). The second was after getting in a fight with some punks in his old girlfriend's neighborhood, and returning bruised and battered.
- M*A*S*H:
- B.J. Hunnicutt uses the exact phrase in the episode "The Abduction of Margaret Houlihan", to explain away a suspicious leg wound. However, he says this to annoy Col. Flagg and does not particularly care if he is believed or not. (Actually, he'd been accidentally shot in the leg by Frank Burns.)
- In the episode "House Arrest", Hawkeye punches Frank and gives him a black eye, but when Frank tries to get corroboration for a court-martial, Trapper John insists he really "slipped on a bar of soap".
- An episode of The Middle found Frankie and the family quickly gathering up garbage for the once every two week garbage pick up. Frankie tossed an empty bottle to Sue which accidentally hit Brick in the head. Later at school when asked about the injury, Brick innocently said "My Mom hit me with a beer bottle", not intending it to sound the way it did.
- The Middleman attempts to use this excuse on Lacey. Since he was bitten by a vampire puppet, it doesn't go over too well.
- Midnight Caller: When Jack has a black eye from being punched in the face by someone he was trying to help, he tells Zymak a book fell on him after he dozed off.
- Played for Laughs in "The Sword of Guillaum" episode of Midsomer Murders when these very words were offered as an "explanation" of the victim's decapitation. Midsomer humor, y'know.
- Monk: In "Mr. Monk and the Red-Headed Stranger," Stottlemeyer breaks his right arm in an accident (forcing Randy to be lead on the crime scene investigation in the death of Willie Nelson's road manager). When he finally makes it to the police station, he claims that he broke his arm in a motorcycle accident after slipping on wet leaves. Monk takes Stottlemeyer aside and tells him that the area he claims he had his accident in has been closed for weeks due to brushfires. Stottlemeyer uneasily admits that in reality, he fell off a ladder while cleaning his gutters.
- New Tricks: In "The Curate's Egg'', Steve asks Dan how he got his black eye. Dan claims, somewhat unconvincingly, that he walked into a door to cover up the fact that his girlfriend's mother hit him with a ladle after he got in a fight with her father (It Makes Sense in Context).
- British sitcom Only Fools and Horses episode "No Greater Love" has this:Del Boy: I fell into a door.
Rodney: A door done all that damage?
Del Boy: Well it was one of those revolving doors. - On an episode of Orange Is the New Black Alex walks into CO Healy's office with a hickey on her neck which she explains away as a mosquito bite until Healy figures out Piper gave Alex the hickey.CO Healy: Hello, mosquito.
- Powerless (2017): When Dan comes to pick up Emily for their date, she notices a mark on his face, which he excuses as having fallen off his bike and landed on a rock. He waves off Teddy's observation that the mark is an imprint of Green Lantern's ring. Everyone but Emily quickly realizes Dan is a henchman.
- An episode of Reba has Brock showing up with a suspicious injury around his right ear, which he claimed to be a shaving wound when his wife's dog is missing. He's soon forced to confess that the injury occurred because the dog bit him while he tried to befriend the dog, but insists he never hurt the dog and is soon cleared of the accusation.
- Scrubs:
- One episode features a throwaway scene where J.D. observes two parents checking their (very badly bruised) daughter into Sacred Heart. Explaining, the father says in a disconcertingly offhand fashion: "She fell again."
- In another episode, there's a scene where several people come into the hospital with bizarre things stuck up their asses, and (nearly) all of them say "I fell on it." The last guy said: "I was bored."
- Sherlock did this in reverse. In "A Scandal in Belgravia", Sherlock finds his landlady beaten up and overpowers the person responsible. He calls the police and requests an ambulance, rattling off all the injuries the man suffered before ending with "He fell out of a window". Then he throws him out of a window. Gilligan Cut to Sherlock and Lestrade standing on the sidewalk as an ambulance drives away.Lestrade: Exactly how many times did he fall out of the window?
Sherlock: It's all a bit of a blur, Detective Inspector. I lost count. - The Sopranos:
- Throughout the series, it's something of a Running Gag for the mobsters to blame any instance of business-related violence on "two black guys".
- In the episode "The Strong Silent Type", after Chris' "intervention" for his drug addiction (where he gets the crap beaten out of him) he is taken to the ER. Tony explains to the nurse that he sustained his injuries "slipping off the kitchen counter while spraying for ants". Off her skeptical look, Tony elaborates, "Well, he was wearing socks".
- The Star Trek: The Original Series episode "City on the Edge of Forever" has a non-injury variation, with Kirk trying to explain away Spock's pointed ears as the result of a mechanical rice-picker accident followed by restorative plastic surgery.
- Star Trek: Voyager: In the episode "Prophecy", Harry Kim walks into sickbay with a bleeding cheek. When he claims this trope, The Doctor (no, not that one) identifies the wound as a bite mark, whereupon Harry admits that a Klingon woman bit him as part of a mating ritual.
- An episode of Strong Medicine had one of the doctor's talking to a colleague's wife when she noticed several large bruises. The woman offers a hasty, vague explanation of having bumped into the coffee table, which the doctor clearly does not believe. Several days later, the woman is rushed to the hospital after having "fallen down the stairs". The doctor angrily confronts her colleague, who continues to protest his innocence. She still does not believe him until tests reveal that the woman is suffering from multiple sclerosis and that the explanations for her injuries were true, as well as a symptom of her illness. Her demeanor was not fear of her husband, but fear of finding out what was wrong.
- Vera: In "On Harbour Street", Vera asks a prostitute how she got her black eye. She replies that she "banged her head".
- Victorious: When Cat catches Tori kissing her boyfriend, she punches her in the face, albeit at Tori's request. When they go to the hospital, they tell the nurse that Tori got hurt by falling down.
- This has occurred a few times on Walker, Texas Ranger:
- Season 5's "Last Hope" details an abused pre-teen named Eddie Del Toro, who has to contend with the abuse his mother's live-in boyfriend dishes out on a regular basis. It's not until after he joins the Ranger Teen Camp coordinated by Walker, Trivette, CD and Alex, helping his classmates take out a gang of drug dealers along the way, he summons the courage to tell Walker and Trivette about him, to which they finally arrest him.
- In Season 9's "Golden Boy", Juan Guerrero, a promising young boxer Walker took under his wing, dealt with this issue during the beginning of the episode at the hands of his father, Luis, as did his mother, Elena. Luis decided to commit DWI (driving while intoxicated, the drunk-driving term used in Texas) while he and Elena were on their way to Juan's next boxing match, and as a result, they are both killed, at which point Walker and Alex take him in so he doesn't lose his Michigan State University scholarship. As the Rangers help him cope with his loss, Juan also becomes instrumental in helping them take out an ecstasy ring producing a new drug known as "Angel's Kiss", which, at the start of the episode, resulted in three teenagers being killed by being hit by a train.
- The West Wing: Josh's hand (supposedly) cut up by a broken drink glass in the episode "Noel", when in fact he smashed his hand through a window during a particularly intense reaction to his Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
- Also Played for Laughs by Toby in reference to Sam's first-episode flap about his accidentally sleeping with a call girl: "I don't understand. Did you trip over something?"
- The What's Happening!! episode "One Strike and You're Out". A strike at his workplace begins the day the main character Raj goes home to find out his mother is unable to work due to ill health and was actually counting on his income. He goes to work to break the strike and comes home with his shirt torn and staggering. When asked what happened he says "I fell down" to which his younger sister asks "Where, down an elevator shaft?". He then admits he was beaten up and lies about who did it because he was embarrassed that it was the elderly mother of his boss. She hit him on the back of the head with her protest sign when Raj started yelling at her son and then beat him up while he was down.
- Subverted in the pilot episode of Z Cars. A policeman's wife is making some excuse about her black eye to her husband's partner, who is unconvinced and rather annoyed. (This was The '60s, so all he does is grumble instead of sic Professional Standards on him.) Turns out she was beaten up, but not by her husband; they live on one of the less salubrious Council Estates in the area and the neighbours aren't fond of policemen, or policemen's wives.
