Desk Sweep of Passion

Clearing off space in one mighty sweep so you can make love on top of the desk in an office.

Desks are convenient flat surfaces for office liaisons, or at least they would be if they weren't so cluttered up with office supplies, paperwork, food, etc. So... sweep it all off in one dramatic move! That'll please your paramour and turn them on, right?

This move is titillating because Making Love in All the Wrong Places is so damn sexy. Doing it in a semi-public place and the idea that the couple might be seen or caught... that makes it even hotter and more thrilling. It also implies that the loved one is so hot that the character who does the sweeping can't control himself/herself. They're so turned on and so eager that they simply must have their lover, now, consequences be damned.

Usually, it's a direct prelude to Professionals Do It on Desks unless a Moment Killer interrupts. This trope appears mostly in sitcoms and work coms, and it's Played for Laughs more often than not.

Related tropes:

• Desk Sweep of Rage: Sister trope; someone throws stuff from the desk to the floor to vent frustration.
• Flipping the Table: The character is furious and flips a desk or a table to deal with their rage.
• Overcome with Desire: Characters must do it where they are because they're just so horny, no matter where they find themselves and whatever the consequences will be.
• Sweeping the Table: Recklessly throwing everything off a work space to make room for an extremely urgent task.

---

Examples:

Films — Live-Action

• In Tamara, Tamara has an Erotic Dream about her teacher Mr. Natolly. He picks her up in the classroom and then sweeps everything off his desk as he lays her down on top of it.
• Jason's Lyric: The second sex scene in the electronic shop, Jason is seen sweeping everything from the counter to put Lyric on and consummate their passion.
• In Art of the Dead, the Lust affected Gina sweeps up Dylan's papers off his desk in an attempt to convince him to have sex with her on the desk, but since he's affected by Greed, it doesn't tempt him at all.

Live-Action TV

• In Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Jake goes to visit Sophia in her office and dramatically sweeps everything off her desk so they can make out. Sophia then quietly points out that her desk is the other desk in the office, on the opposite side of the room.
• Friends:
  • "The One with the Monkey":
    • David the Scientist Guy (played by Hank Azaria) awkwardly attempts to sweep his desk to impress and kiss Phoebe before realizing that most of the equipment on it is quite expensive (like a laptop or a microscope). To get him to stop, Phoebe has to point out that he's tidying more than spontaneously sweeping off the desk.
      David: ...the longer I waited, the more phenomenal the kiss had to be, and now we've reached a place where it's just gotta be one of those things where I just like... sweep everything off the table and throw you down on it. And, uh, I'm not really a, uh, sweeping sorta fella.
    • Later in the episode David decides not to go to Minsk for a project and celebrates his decision by successfully sweeping all the papers off the table. When Phoebe comments that he's getting better at it David replies that they were his lab partner's papers so he didn't care about making a mess with them.
  • "The One With The Flashback": The one time Ross and Phoebe nearly hooked up, Ross tried to sweep the table... the pool table. Played for Laughs because pool tables have a lip around the edge specifically to stop anything from falling off. The balls are originally in a neat triangle, and when he sweeps them they scatter, now occupying more table space than they did before. Ross has to awkwardly shove all the balls into the holes to clear a space to lay.
  • "The One With All The Candy":
    • When Rachel is dating her assistant Tag, she dramatically sweeps all the stuff off her desk and hops up onto it.
      Tag: Are you serious?
      Rachel: No, I've just always wanted to do that. Can you help me clean this up?
    • Tag sweeps stuff from Rachel's desk and wants to get it on. Rachel glares at him and says it took her so long to get that desk organized... but it turns out she's just messing with him and is into playful flirting. She just wants to see his ass as he tries to pick up the things from the floor.
  • "The One With the Fertility Test": Chandler tries this thing with Monica, sweeping everything off the table in their apartment. She, however, is obsessed with cleanliness and orderliness.
    Monica: Okay, trying to turn me on by making a mess? Know your audience!
• On Herman's Head, when Herman and Heddy finally get together, they argue and fight, then kiss violently, and each sweeps a half of their boss's desk! Then they have sex on it and spend the night in the office. In a later episode Animal (Herman's Lust) does a Call-Back which involves playing a tape of this scene which then breaks because he's been playing the tape constantly while Angel has been asleep.
• How I Met Your Mother: Robin is dating an Argentinian guy Gael. When they're in Argentina and he sweeps off some fruit with the words "I must have you" and sits her on the table, Robin is turned on. When he sweeps off stuff in her New York apartment, she just desperately cries, "Ooh, Laptop! Laptop! Laptop!"
• Parks and Recreation: Tom Haverford sweeps a desk in an office when he wants to seduce Ann Perkins. They only had one date and she really does not appreciate his tricks and his "playbook".
• General Hospital: A guy passionately sweeps the desk, only to have the man's confused girlfriend point out, "We have a perfectly good couch right here." The man sheepishly declares, "I know, I've just always wanted to do that."

Roleplays

• In one of the apocryphal omakes in Embers in the Dusk, when Freya tells her husband that he "could take a break" from all the paperwork, it is stated that "Frederick was wise to her ways, and cleared a space on his desk just in time for Freya to land."

Video Games

• In Dragon Age: Inquisition, as a female Inquisitor if you choose to pursue a romantic relationship with Cullen their first time ends up being on his desk where he sweeps everything off before picking her up and putting her down on it. Apparently, everyone knows this happened as Sera makes a joke about how desks need to beware.

Western Animation

• On Rocko's Modern Life, Bev comes down with an amphibian throat disease after eating an infected mosquito, and requires a tonsillectomy. She also gets a new nose put on (despite being a toad), because someone else's order got attached to hers. She ends up liking the new nose, gets her hair done and buys a new dress, and goes to visit her husband at work. Ed is delighted to see her, and pushes everything off his desk. They don't end up doing it, not only because this is (allegedly) a kids' show, but because Bev can smell Ed now...and he smells bad.
• On an episode of The PJs called "He's Gotta Have It", Thurgoode takes a blood pressure medication that makes him very horny. It becomes a Running Gag that every time he takes his medicine he swipes everything off the nearest surface and takes his wife on it. The episode ends with a dog taking one of his pills and giving Mrs. Avery a salacious look before swiping everything off the table.

---