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Slippery Soap

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So you have a character in the shower (or bath) and they reach for a bar of soap. The soap proceeds to be very uncooperative, slipping out of the person's hands. Occasionally, it happens when someone is washing their hands. Often seen as part of a black comedy prison sexual abuse scene, or any time a Shower Scene gets Played for Laughs, really. (Especially when the victim slips when they're looking for the soap.)

A bar of soap can also become a variant of a Banana Peel when stepped upon.


Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Anime & Manga 
  • On Azumanga Daioh, Osaka washes her hands while wondering if she's really as spacy as everyone thinks she is. The soap leaps away, and a handkerchief she was holding in her mouth falls into the sink.
  • Used tragically in Death Parade. Mayu died by slipping on soap and hitting her head, though this is treated more lighthearted than the other deaths.
  • Love Hina has a Bathtub Scene where Mutsumi is helping Naru scrub and the soap falls in between Naru's legs. Mutsumi tries to grab the soap but ends up rubbing Naru's crotch trying to get it. When leaving the bathtub, Naru slips on a bar of soap on the floor and ends up slamming her face onto the toilet.

    Films — Animated 

    Films — Live-Action 
  • Inverted in The Darwin Awards. An insurance investigator insists on using liquid soap in the shower specifically to avoid this trope, and even constructs a bizarre apparatus to prevent himself from falling down in the bathroom (where most home accidents happen). Of course, the apparatus winds up presenting problems of its own.
  • In Half Baked, Kenny drops the soap in the prison showers. He doesn't drop it as he reaches for it, but as he is singing into it (yes, this is a strange film).
  • In Josie and the Pussycats, Melody keeps dropping the soap in the shower. Of course, this has less to do with its slipperiness than it does with Melody's stupidity.
  • Midnight Cowboy opens with Joe dropping a bar of soap while showering.
  • In The Naked Gun 33 1/3: Frank is in the prison shower, and the Friendly Neighborhood Prison Sexual Abuser approaches him and drops the soap. He asks Frank to pick it up. Frank replies "no problem," bending over to reveal Iron Underwear.

    Literature 
  • In Disney Discovery Series Presents Safety First, the illustration for the Bathtubs page depicts the Seven Dwarfs taking a bath, and Sleepy slipping on a bar of soap.

    Webcomics 

    Western Animation 
  • Blue's Clues has Slippery Soap (yes, that's his name), the resident klutz of the Blue's Clues House. As his name suggests, he is a talking bar of soap. He's very clumsy and slips around a lot (so much that it almost ruins the gang's musical show in Blue's Big Musical Movie). His catchphrase is "Whoaaa!" and the show's intro sequence features him sliding into the window on a trail of bubbles.
  • The Boondocks: One of Tom DuBois's nightmares depicts him having a bar of soap slide out of his hands and onto the floor... in the middle of a prison shower. Almost immediately, he is confronted by a burly inmate, forced to pick it up, and heavily implied to be sexually assaulted.
  • In the Care Bears (1980s) episode "Grin and Bear It", Beastly slips on a bar of soap while mopping the floor, which he incorporates into his Job Song.
  • Happens to Dilbert. Leads to video of him searching for the sliver of soap in the bath that looks like he is doing something else entirely.
    Dilbert: It's so small. I can't even find it!
  • Peter references this in the first episode of Family Guy when he ends up in prison with Brian.
    Brian: How was your shower?
    Peter: Oh, I tell you, Brian, all of the rumors about dropping the soap are true.
    Brian: Really?
    Peter: Oh, yeah, you can't hold onto that thing to save your life. It was slipping all over the place. Guys were laughing.
    Prisoner #1: Hey, there's the guy that couldn't hold onto the soap.
    Prisoner #2: Oh, that was classic.
  • In an episode of The Flintstones, Fred is showering, and calls to Wilma, asking her where the soap is. She tells him it's probably where he left it - on the floor. Too late - by the time she's said that, he's slipped on it. Fred sarcastically responds, "Don't worry, I found it!"
  • Hey Arnold!: In "Sid's Revenge", when Principal Wartz accuses Sid of planting fake vomit in the cafeteria and gives him detention, Sid gets the idea to make a Voodoo Doll out of a bar of soap after seeing it on television. The next morning, through a series of contrived coincidences, Sid believes that he killed Principal Wartz. At the end of the episode, after Arnold tosses the soap doll aside, Sid sees Principal Wartz and thinks that Arnold brought him back to life. Principal Wartz finds out the truth and tells Sid that one of the teachers planted the fake vomit as a joke and apologizes for accusing him, but still gives him detention for making the voodoo doll. As Sid plots his revenge, Principal Wartz steps on the voodoo doll, slipping on it and ending up falling on his back.
  • The 'slipping-on-the-soap' variant happens twice to Mr. Bogus in the first act of the episode "Bad Luck Bogus", as part of his bad luck-induced Humiliation Conga.
  • Total Drama:
    • In "One Million Bucks B.C.", Harold returns to his trailer fresh from a shower. He drops the soap he's holding, which Duncan warns him about, but Harold thinks the bully is playing a prank, keeps walking, and slips on the soap. Duncan and Justin have a laugh until Harold confronts them butt-naked and in no hurry to put his Modesty Towel back on.
    • In the "That's Gonna Leave a Mark!" segment of "Aftermath III: O-wen or Lose", an outtake of "One Million Bucks B.C.", Harold walks into the guys' trailer and slips on a piece of soap. It goes flying, bounces off of the wall, and hits Harold in the nuts before he even gets to fall.

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