Ignore the Fanservice
Ms. Fanservice approaches her target. Wearing her tightest blouse, she sidles up to him, runs her hand down his arm, smiles at him sweetly, does the "push-up" thing to accentuate her cleavage...
And her efforts to seduce the guy fall completely flat.
Why? Usually because the intended "victim" is completely and totally above such things. Or maybe he just knows better than to play Ms. Fanservice's game. Or he's pre-occupied. Or he doesn't swing that way. Or else he's just not interested.
Sorry, I'm Gay is a subtrope. May result in a request to Please Put Some Clothes On, depending on the nudity level of Ms. Fanservice at the time. Compare to Not Distracted by the Sexy, where people aren't intentionally ignoring the fanservice so much as they don't seem to notice it in the first place. Can play a part in a character's decision to Defect From Decadence. Often used in tandem with Ready for Lovemaking, to better subvert it.
Advertising
- A Coors Light commercial features a guy coming home to find lit candles all over the apartment, a trail of rose petals, and a note on the refrigerator written in lipstick saying "Come and get me". As he opens the fridge door, his girlfriend appears in the doorway wearing lingerie. He doesn't even notice her; he's too interested in the Coors Light "Cold Activated Window" beer in the fridge.
- This is the trope IN AN ELEVATOR!
- Played for laughs in an Arby's Roast Beef commercial. A group of construction workers are oblivious to the many pretty women who walk by but start hooting and hollering when a guy walks by carrying an Arby's bag.
- An ad for the Windows phone shows a lady standing in front of her bed in a sexy nightie, trying in vain to distract her husband from his phone.
- A Levi's Jeans commercial has a woman (after being unable to go into a women's bathroom to change her pants) go into the men's washroom and see a (seemingly) blind young man twirling his cane. She proceeds to change in front of him, then walks up to his face and zips up her jeans in front of his face (to no reaction whatsoever). She walks out of the washroom, and another man comes out of an adjoining stall. The "blind" kid hands the cane back to the older man (who is actually the blind one), and tells him he wouldn't believe what just happened.
Anime and Manga
- Yakitate!! Japan does this with Suwabara Kai and Monica. She tries to wreck his concentration by stripping to a bikini; he counters by stripping to his loincloth and the Cooking Duel continues.
- D.Gray-man: Mimi tries to seduce Lavi in an attempt to do some spy work for Lulu Bell. He ends up ignoring her and paying more attention to Lenalee. He probably wouldn't have ignored her if she had been his type...
- Code Geass:
- During the Cupid's Day episode, one of Milly's plans to stop Lelouch involves putting a bunch of scantily-clad girls in suggestive poses in his way. However, "Lelouch" is actually Sayoko in disguise, and she just jumps over them. For extra comedy points, Sayoko says "Those bodies have no effect on me!", causing the appropriate confused reaction from the girls, and Lelouch asking her to "please quit making me say such things".
- And in the first season, Suzaku manages to tackle a completely nude Kallen to the ground after catching her bathing on a deserted island. He proceeds to... arrest her, looking only at her face. Would be a case of Not Distracted by the Sexy but he starts out the conversation by apologizing, presumably very much aware of the fact that she is naked, and then quickly forgets the "naked" part in favor of "charging me with a knife" part.
- Mahou Sensei Negima does this a lot, given as the seductress' target is usually Negi, who is ten years old.
- The most obvious one is probably when Evangeline goes into full vamp mode, stripping him naked and dragging him into a bath with her and licking the cut on his arm. The attempt at seduction fails completely.
- Interestingly, his ability to Ignore the Fanservice becomes a plot point when School Newspaper Newshound Asakura tries to give him a bit of Marshmallow Hell in order to make him expose his magic and Unmasque The World. He doesn't respond to this, and sees through her disguise quickly. She's naturally insulted when he tells her quite frankly that her breasts seem small in comparison to her Disguise target (she was otherwise indistinguishable).
- Older fans point out the irony of Negima! being described as "an escape from Love Hina", considering the lead of that series had no ability to Ignore the Fanservice.
- In the Battle Royale manga, Mitsuko Souma strips naked in order to try to seduce Kazuo Kiriyama, and later kill him. Kiriyama can feel no emotions, and Mitsuko's unoriginal plan not only fails miserably, but backfires spectacularly when she is tortured and then shot in the face. Disturbingly enough, it does seem to have worked a little. This is the first (and almost only) time we ever see Kiriyama display clear emotion, smirking as he intentionally and repeatedly shoots to wound rather than kill.
- Death Note:
- Misa Amane goes to various lengths to entice her fiancé Light Yagami into bed. These include parading around in a corset and panties or a sexy nightdress. She also becomes quite frustrated when Light doesn't want to interact with her. Which is pretty much all the time, unless he needs her to do his dirty work.
- We also have Halle Lidner, who gets her kit off in front of Mello, a man she hardly knows, without hesitation. She then has a very suggestive shower, and offers Mello a place to stay, in a very seductive manner which as we all know can only mean one thing. Mello is completely unaffected by Halle's behaviour, and instead points a gun at her.
- Haruhi Suzumiya
- As Kyon is flirting with Mikuru, Haruhi kept trying more and more revealing attire, culminating in a partial bunny suit (as in, she wasn't wearing part of it, not that she wore it with something else) but was entirely ignored. This did not go over well with her.
- Kyon seems to ignore every aspect of Haruhi's fanservice-oriented outfits except for how socially disruptive they are to everyone else. "Seems" being the operative word, as he is a notoriously Unreliable Narrator.
- It's also possible that her troublesome behavior and attitude simply override any sexual appeal he (consciously) feels for her at this point.
- During Mousse's introductory story in Ranma ½, Ranma, who is stuck in female form, tried to pass off her girl body as an elaborate disguise meant to humiliate the Chinese martial artist—going as far as to equate his Hidden Weapons style as magic tricks and dressing up as a Playboy Bunny magician's assistant. Mousse was so enraged that he systematically destroyed Ranma's (already scant) clothing, leaving her wearing nothing but shoes and a few centimeters of fabric on her crotch and derriere. The Fûrinkan audience was crying tears of joy, but Mousse remained fully focused on tearing the remains of the "disguise" to pieces. (It doesn't hurt that while Mousse is Blind Without'Em, he's almost blind even with his glasses on.)
- Subverted in the manga, when Ranma converts one of his unisex outfits into a bikini, so that guys will want to take him out on a date and buy him lunch. When this doesn't work, he's horrified, thinking that he's no longer appealing to men. But as it turns out, there just aren't any men on the beach, because the owner of the island forbade any males to be there.
- Dungeonmaster's Girlfriend Kasukabe from Genshiken puts on her shortest skirt, her tightest shirt and starts draping herself around Cloudcuckoolander Kousaka while talking to him in the sexiest way possible. His answer? "Thanks, but I'm going to line up for a videogame release in Akihabara."
- In the Lupin III movie First Contact, Fujiko takes a shower in Jigen's apartment, comes out in just a towel, and tries to seduce him by leaning over to show her generous cleavage off, and then when he ignores that, starts to drop the towel. He uses the barrel of his magnum to hold it on her body while simultaneously threatening to shoot her if she tries that again. This is also a slightly defining moment for Jigen, as he is the only one consistently unaffected by Fujiko's appearance (even Goemon is affected; he just blushes and looks away when she's naked though).
- The second episode of The Woman Named Fujiko Mine (wherein they hadn't met yet) has a similar scene where he at first pretends to be accepting her offer then grabs the knife she was concealing and threatens her with it.
- Not quite the same, but when Alice makes an appearance in MAR, all of the character's comment on how Stripperific she looks. Except Ginta (her summoner) who never even seems to look her way. Even Babbo, who changes into the form, is embarassed about it. Given that we know he's a normal boy for his age (he makes several comments about Dorothy and very clearly has a crush on Koyuki/Snow), it makes you wonder. Probably justified that Ginta consider Koyuki/Snow as cute Love Interest and Dorothy as a Beautiful The Tease, he never REALLY comments anything about a *cough*girl's body*cough* after all.
- He also knows it's Babbo. When Nanashi makes a comment about Alice's body, Dorothy is quick to remind him that Alice is Babbo.
- Dragon Ball
- In the very first episode/chapter, Bulma offers to let Goku feel up her butt in exchange for his Dragon Ball. Goku's response? "I don't wanna touch your dirty butt."
- Again, in the 21st Tenka'ichi Budokai, Ranfan whose entire fighting style relies on Fan Service to let the guard down of the predominantly male fighters, tries this on Nam, an ascetic monk. Nam, thinking about his villagers in the drought in his homeland, closes his eyes and quickly defeats Ranfan (although he was flustered during the match when she started stripping).
- In Please Twins, Mike ignores all the fanservice provided by... well, every single female in the series. Therefore, they logically conclude that he is gay (he isn't). Hilarity Ensues.
- When Killer Bee refuses to teach Naruto how he learned to control his tailed-beast, Naruto tries to use the Harem Jutsu to persuade him... and literally gets the door slammed in his face for it, much to his surprise.
- In an very early episode of Pokémon, A battle comes down to Ash's Metapod (coccons capable only of hardening themselves to defend from attacks) and his opponent's. In the middle of this stalemate, the camera cuts to Misty in a bathing suit getting some sun. Those must have been some really dedicated trainers to not notice a girl changing clothes right next to them.
- In Full Metal Panic!'s Beach Episode, Kaname specifically wears a rather revealing bathing suit in an attempt to get Sôsuke's attention. Unfortunately, he doesn't notice (as seen here), which ticks her off (among other things that day).
- One episode of Goku Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei subverts this, with a group of men not interested on Kaere's pantyshots... because they're more interested on anime girls' panties. Japan's government hires them to keep State secrets because they're immune to Honey Traps.
- One Piece
- Zoro was the only one not to go peek at Nami and Vivi bathing. Even Vivi's own father and Parental Substitute went to do it!
- This happens with Luffy when Boa Hancock is completely naked before him, with the first thing he says after seeing this is "there is no food back here".
- Maeda from Ai Kora, who is only attracted to his "Ideal Parts". Even if a girl is trying to get his attention through normal sexual attractiveness, if it has nothing to do with his Ideal Parts he shows no interest.
- Sylvie Lumiere from Baccano! is sexy enough to attract the attention of women as well as men. Maiza, however, is completely immune.
Comic Books
- Superman
- Cat Grant suggests that Clark should get Lasik, since surgery worked wonders for her (while not so subtly showing off her augmented chest). Without ever taking his eyes off her face, he replied, "I didn't know you used to wear glasses." Amusingly enough, after several panels of Clark looking her in the eye, she stops and checks her breasts, presumably to make sure they're working properly.
- Considering his lack of reaction to the outfits of the female members of the Justice League of America, that is hardly surprising.
- Also considering he could take a peek whenever he wants to, it probably isn't a big deal to him. Not to mention, X-ray vision would presumably make... augmented... breasts look rather different from the real thing.
- When Ava Lord of Sin City: A Dame to Kill For allies with Wallenquist, he tells her, "I'll warn you once and only once, Mrs. Lord -- do not flirt with me. I have no use for your charms."
- In the X Wing Series, Soontir Fel, the best Imperial pilot alive, is assigned to a corrupt admiral who pushes a scantily-clad woman at him, telling him to "enjoy her" rather than keep going over the defenses of the world. Fel says his wife would not approve, the admiral says that neither would his wife, but no-one would know. But Fel would, and he's much more interested in plans for defending the planet from Rebels. This is basically a sort of Pet the Dog for him. Most fans would also note that Fel's wife is much hotter than the woman the corrupt admiral was offering.
Fan Works
- The East Clock Town Guard in The Blue Blur of Termina, who not only didn't buy Tatl's halfhearted attempt at flirting with him, but actually threatened her with imprisonment if she persisted.
Films -- Live-Action
- Jonathan and Rosalie do this in Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad. Not only does he turn her down, but he ends up strangling her.
- In the (musical) film adaptation of Hairspray, Velma attempts to seduce Wilbur, meeting with utter failure, so she resorts to physical force to put them in a compromising position for his wife Edna to see.
- In Moulin Rouge!, Satine's blatant acts of sexiness are ignored by Christian, but not because he isn't interested...
- Chieko's story in Babel is a dramatic example.
- In Kingpin, two corrupt bowlers fix a tournament by stationing Ms. Fanservice next to the lane to throw the other bowlers off their game. A farmer in denim overalls isn't at all flustered... until one of the characters produces an adorable baby lamb.
- In Clueless, Cher attempts to seduce Christian. Unfortunately, he's not really into girls.
- Roxie Hart of Chicago briefly tries the seduction route to get Billy Flynn to represent her, until he informs her, "You mean one thing to me and one thing only. Call me when you get 5,000 bucks."
- In the 1971 British horror film Blood on Satan's Claw, Angel Blake tries to seduce Reverend Fallowfield, but being a good man of the cloth, he pushes her away.
- One of the jokes in the song "Bad Jokes" from A Prairie Home Companion:
Gramps turned 90 the other day, everybody was there
We were all gathered around him, sitting in his big armchair
When a beautiful young naked woman stood up in front of the group
She offered him some super sex and he said "I'LL TAKE THE SOUP!"
- In the movie adaptation of the video game Hitman, the protagonist agent 47 receives very direct approaches by Nika, but he just doesn't want to be bothered (and, being engineered from birth to serve as an assassin, probably doesn't have much of a sex drive anyhow).
- She literally jumps him almost completely naked. He produces a syringe with a sedative and injects her, allowing him to get back to work.
- "You have nothing I need". Those were the Mariner (Kevin Costner)'s words in Waterworld.
- In The Naked Gun 33 1/3rd, Tanya tries to distract a guard. She tries the old flash the leg, spinning the shoulder straps of her dress around, but none of it works. She finally gets him by seductively playing with bubble wrap. He shoos her away from the bubble wrap and begins playing with it himself.
- There is an ignored naked girl waiting in the bed in Trading Places. The prostitute is also mostly ignored in many (not all) scenes.
- James Bond:
- James turns down Bibi (Lynn-Holly Johnson) after she shows up naked in his bed, offering herself to him in For Your Eyes Only. Apparently she's supposed to be too young.
- In Diamonds Are Forever, Blofeld orders Tiffany Case to put something on over her bikini so his henchmen won't get distracted.
- The Big Sleep, movie version of Raymond Chandler's novel.
- The crazy younger sister turns up in Marlowe's bed, but he gets her dressed and drags her home. She's homicidally angry with him for turning her down.
Marlowe: She tried to sit in my lap while I was still standing up.
- The older sister puts the moves on Marlowe too, but less blatantly. She also gets upset when turned down, but she's not as histrionic as her sister.
- Classic example in Malice: Nicole Kidman's character starts playing footsie with Bill Pullman's under the table, telling him in a breathy voice how she misses him and still wants him, to which he coldly replies "I think you dropped your shoe."
- In the Tim Burton Planet of the Apes remake, Leo pays absolutely no attention at all to the drop dead gorgeous Daena even after she puts the full liplock on him.
- In Clones of Bruce Lee, Bruce #2 is completely unaffected by the naked prostitute he finds in his hotel room. Good thing, considering she was an assassin sent by Dr. Ny to assassinate him.
- In Scary Movie 2, Theo attempts to vamp Dwight to get the keys to escape the haunted house. It doesn't work.
- In the 1987 movie version of Dragnet, Joe Friday rejects a topless model and ignores a stripper, although he does end up with Connie Swail.
- He falls for [The Virgin] Connie Swail because she is every bit as straight-laced and ultraconservative as him, which also explains why he didn't pay much mind to the earlier fanservice.
- The Rebbe's son does this to a female undercover cop in A stranger among us.
- 2005's Fantastic Four. Susan Storm arrives explaining the outfits that would later be adopted as those of the FF and wearing her own so that it nicely exposes her cleavage... and it for a moment it looks like Reed Richards is astonished by how good it looks on her... until he starts proclaiming how impressed he is with the materials they are made out of, and how they are designed to correspond to the group's molecular structure. Cue a displeased look from Sue.
- In Cruel Intentions, Sebastian sucessfully seduces Cecile, the woman that Kathryn originally bet he would be able to sleep with. Kathryn later tells Cecile how to learn the art of sex from Sebastian. Cecile, in turn, tries to seduce Sebastian by climbing on top of him half-dressed while he's working. Sebastian literally shoves Cecile off the bed like a toy and keeps typing.
Literature
- In Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, the Savage is totally uninterested in what Lenina is offering. (Well, actually he is interested, but he doesn't want to ruin his "purity.")
- In Plato's Symposium, Alcibiades attempts to seduce Socrates, even going so far to literally sleep with him, but fails because Socrates is above such things. This makes this trope Older Than Feudalism.
- The Dresden Files
- This happens several times, with a fairy, several vampires, and Harry's apprentice—and good friend's daughter—Molly (but not at the same time). Sometimes it does take some effort on Harry's part.
- Especially in the first book, when reporter and love interest Susan Rodriguez accidentally drank a love potion instead of an escape potion and wound up trapped in a magic circle with an acid-spitting toad demon outside and a dosed-up Susan making forays into attempted rape inside.
- Though one would hesitate to describe it as "literature", there is a scene in which a waitress in a tavern is trying to seduce the main character of The Orb of Xoriat (she is actually trying to get him to ask her to dance, but sex is implied in later conversation). She has a disproportionately-excessive response (leading a band of assassins to him) later in the book.
- In Raymond Chandler's novel The Big Sleep, a beautiful young lady turns up naked in Philip Marlowe's bed and tries to seduce him. His response is basically Please Put Some Clothes On.
- Likewise with Mike Hammer in The Twisted Thing. He mentions afterwards that she went about it the wrong way, as he likes to be teased a little.
- Many Jedi in the Star Wars Expanded Universe. Most notably Corran in I, Jedi—the Big Bad tempted him, and he thought about it, but he didn't bite—and Luke's son Ben in Invincible. In the prequel era, Anakin, of course, manages to Ignore the Fanservice from anyone but Padmé.
- In the first Warhammer 40,000 Gaunt's Ghosts novel First and Only, Major Rawne and his adjutant are negotiating with some local gangsters for contraband, ignoring a nearby stripping dancer in the process.
- Dunno what the contraband in question was, but if it's food or something like that, some things take priority over nekkid chicks. Food, ammo, medical supplies, things of that kidney.
- Liquor, smokes and porn, in that order. Unsurprisingly, during the pay off, things go awry.
- In Shadow of the Lion, Lucretia resents that Eneko and Marco spurned her advances despite magical aphrodisiacs. This is just another reason for her to kill them as painfully as possible.
- In Terry Pratchett's Mort, when the title character knocks on Ysabel's bedroom door, she quickly adjusts the neckline of her nightgown to be a bit more revealing, then invites him in. Mort simply tells her to follow him, since he needs her help looking something up in the library. As he heads out, he adds, "And put something on, you're overflowing."
- In the Doctor Who Eighth Doctor Adventures novel Camera Obscura, the first chapter concerns Noble Demon Sabbath meeting his Morality Pet du jour. She's a violent, troubled, crazy teenage girl. Being used to men sexually harassing her, she decides to Show Some Leg to get him interested, as she's in a Bedlam House and would like to leave. He ignores what she's doing until she gets bored of it. When she suggests that he might have prurient motives for hiring her, he's neither startled nor interested by it. By the end of the book, it's implied that they're having some sort of chaste love affair.
- In Agatha H and the Airship City, Princess Zulena declares that "There's no male guard on this ship that can resist a beautiful and oh-so-lonely princess." She's wrong; one of two scenes where the princess gets her comeuppance.
- In Girl Genius we only see Zulenna's boast and then the outcome.
- In Robert A. Heinlein's The Number of the Beast, this is how Zeb and Deety clue to the fact that the "park ranger" accosting them is an alien; Deety's abrupt strip tease does not distract him or even engage his interest.
- Also in The Puppet Masters, book and film. Heinlein's standard litmus test for identifying non-humans usually involves boobs. Fair enough.
- In Magic's Pawn, of Mercedes Lackey's Heralds of Valdemar series, a tavern wench tries to seduce protagonist Vanyel while he is en route to the city of Haven. His complete disinterest surprises her—and more importantly, him, because thanks to some rather bigoted parents, he's been sheltered all his life from knowing about homosexuality.
- In The Demon Princes final volume The Book of Dreams, Alice Wroke is under orders from the villain to seduce Kirth Gersen, who has had four books worth of experience in situations like this already. He spends several chapters either ignoring her Sexy Secretary outfits, or telling her to cover up.
Live-Action TV
- In Rome, Cleopatra, the woman who succeeded to keep her kingdom by seducing both Julius Caesar and Mark Anthony, tried to use her wiles on Octavius, Caesar's successor and the new Emperor of Rome. In response, he is polite, understanding, charming, and not fazed for even a second by her come-ons. Cleopatra's response to this is well known.
- An episode of Spin City had the team trying to get a new chair for the office, but the guy in charge wouldn't give it to them because they had broken it by racing in the corridor. When the girls tried to seduce him, he didn't even look up. They decide that he is gay and send Carter after him, but he quit in disgust before they could confirm it.
- On Thirty Rock, Jenna was shot down trying to use her cleavage to get into a restaurant.
Liz: How long is the wait?
Maître d'hôtel: About 45 minutes.
(Jenna unbuttons her blouse)
Jenna: (in a sultry voice) Are you sure about that 45 minutes?
Maître d'hôtel: (a little bemused) Yeah.
- Although the joke there is that not getting her a table actually allows him to stare at her chest for 45 minutes.
- This happened in an episode of The Love Boat when some of the passengers and crew were held hostage. First guest-star Barbi Benton tried to seduce the hostage-taker. When he states that "I like the blond one", Julie tries, but also to no avail.
- In one episode of Hogan's Heroes, a German scientist tries to seduce Carter (who is pretending to be a chemical weapons specialist), even plying him with wine. Fortunately for Carter, he's the only Chaste Hero of the group and finds her advances scary. Good thing too, since the wine is poisoned. The scientist is a defector.
- In Twin Peaks, Agent Cooper finds Audrey Horne naked in his hotel bed. He's not interested, though, as she's too young for him.
- Battlestar Galactica. Shelly Godfrey (actually a Number Six Cylon) tries to seduce Commander Adama, but this only makes him suspicious of her. This may have been her intention though, in order to throw doubt on her accusations of Baltar (thereby placing him above suspicion).
- According to The Plan, that bit was never planned. Baltar's just very lucky (again), because his "dreamy hair" led Shelly to subconsciously sabotage herself.
- Sex and the City
- When Samantha has nude pictures taken of herself she was grievously offended when the photo developer made no comment on them. Later, a delivery guy notices said picture on her wall and receives a 20 dollar tip when he compliments her ass.
- Happens to Charlotte, when she gets a sexy nightgown to try to arouse some interest from her husband Trey. He's dismissive, telling her that the nightgown just isn't her. She is able to get his attention when she starts touching herself, however...
- Everyone does this with Vala in Stargate SG-1.
- Daniel finally relents in the series finale, when he realizes she wants more than just a roll in a hay. They end up an item... and then hit the Reset Button.
- Firefly: Mal attempts to do this in Our Mrs. Reynolds. He fails: "Oh God, I'm going to the special hell."
- To be fair, Saffron has had Companion training. Good luck refusing that.
- Wash succeeds, though. But then again, Wash beds down with his Hot Amazon wife every night (who, as he reflects, can kill him with her pinkie), while Mal sleeps alone pining after the gorgeous hooker.
- As does Topher from Dollhouse. Joss Whedon apparently enjoys this trope.
- Xander succeeds against the entire female cast of Buffy the Vampire Slayer when a sex-appeal spell has been cast on him. "Buffy. No, please don't open that raincoat." Buffy herself is occasionally shown ignoring cute guys as a sign that she's in a funk, such as in her opening musical number in "Once More With Feeling", where she dismisses a bare-chested model offering to "repay" her for saving his life. "Whatever."
- Burn Notice: While not an intended seduction, when Fiona misinterprets Michael saying he's 'coming over' she opens the door wearing nothing but an open shirt over her underwear and holding a glass of wine... and Michael and Sam just stroll past her while tossing off a casual greeting. Sam spares her one glance, Michael doesn't even look at her.
- In CSI New York Mac Taylor's ability to remain completely focused on his job when said job lands him in a room full of half-dressed Roller Derby queens, one of whom is visibly trying to throw herself at him, is nothing short of impressive. That said, though, he does have practice.
- Gossip Girl's Serena van der Woodsen tries to orchestrate a cunning scheme in season three, to expose Jenny's boyfriend Damian as a sleaze and make her dump him. The idea is for her to do her usual Ms. Fanservice thing and Nate will walk in with Jenny just as Damian is throwing himself at Serena. She fails to take into consideration that Damian might not want to jump her bones the first chance he gets, and the plan of course fails.
- Parodied in Yes, Dear. Kim tries seducing Greg so she can get pregnant again to no avail. After she leaves Greg pours ice down his pants.
- In a late-episode Get Smart, Agent 99 tries to distract a KAOS agent with a sexy come-on, and is stunned when he just walks by. After 86 subdues him and is then worried when he finds he's not an agent, 99 tells him they're safe, as his eyesight wasn't that good.
- Amy attempts to seduce the Doctor at the end of the Doctor Who episode "Flesh and Stone". The Doctor refuses because he realizes she's just having an extreme case of pre-wedding jitters and really loves her fiancé.
- Spartacus's masters, in their various efforts to manipulate or reward him, repeatedly send the slave Mira to spend the night with him, but each time he rejects her, as his heart belongs to his estranged and later dead wife Sura.
- The Big Bang Theory
- The guys are playing Halo when Penny walks in with a bunch of friends and says that they want to have sex. The guys don't even seem to hear her and continue playing, to which Penny then tells her friends "Told you so."
- In the second episode of season one, the guys are working on building a TV shelf from Ikea, and Penny mumbles that she'd take off her clothes. Silence ensues as the boys ignore her.
- Happens in Scrubs, where Jordan tries to seduce a boy from across the hall. He is nice to her, calls her "ma'am", and leaves. In utter "Ma'am" Shock, she gets so much botox that she can barely talk.
- In Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Phillip was too busy with his work to notice that his wife was wearing nothing but plastic wrap in an attempt to seduce him. Latter averted when he replays the day in his mind, just realized what she was wearing at the time, and goes to ask her to give it another try.
- When Irene Adler, sexy dominatrix extraordinaire, tries to seduce Sherlock Holmes in the BBC's Sherlock, his response is to check her pulse and look to see if her pupils are dilated, so he'll know if she's actually attracted to him.
Music
- In the video for Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepsen, she tries to get the attention of a hunky guy she likes by washing a car sexily (and hilariously). It does not work as he is gay, as she later finds out when he gives his number to the (male) guitarist of her band.
Myths and Religion
- Another Older Than Feudalism example: Joseph, in The Bible, was repeatedly approached by the wife of his master Potiphar. Since sleeping with her would've betrayed his master, he refused her over and over. Finally she attempted to rape him outright, then accused him of same when he ran off to escape her.
- Possibly the Ur Example would be Gilgamesh completely rejecting the Goddess of Love Inanna/Ishtar, because he's heard her lovers tend to go through some hell once she's done with them. Of course, spurning her doesn't get him into her good graces either....
Pro Wrestling
- The Jeff Jarrett/Owen Hart team was managed by Debra, who used her looks to distract their opponents and help them gain wins. So, Jarret/Hart won a Tag Team Title shot against Big Bossman and Ken Shamrock of The Corporation. Pat Patterson forced Bossman and Shamrock to drink saltpeter, which, as he put it, "makes you keep the right head up and the other one down.". It worked, but Jarrett/Hart still found a way to win the titles.
Theatre
- Damn Yankees
- Lola declares in song that she's irresistible and has an accompanying strip-tease routine. Only this time with Joe, what Lola wants, she doesn't get.
- The other ball players have a comic song all about this trope: "The Game."
- In Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Maggie walks around in her lingerie, trying to get her husband, Brick, to have sex with her again. However, he's disgusted by her, and refuses even to touch her.
- Cirque Du Soleil's Zumanity had a segment where a (world-class - seriously) pole-dancer tried to get her husband's attention away from a football game, to no avail.
- Quickly forgotten in the ten million cover versions, but this is the basic plot behind the song One Night in Bangkok.
I get my kicks above the waistline, sunshine!
Video Games
- Ace Attorney:
- Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials and Tribulations has Dahlia Hawthorne, who leaves every male character she meets lovestruck... except for Miles Edgeworth. Although she doesn't so much do fanservice as cuteservice.
- In the first game, Edgeworth and Phoenix are both immune to the charms of April May. Though Phoenix was originally intended to get "heart eyes" when she turned up on the stand.
- Semi-subverted for Super Robot Wars: Kyosuke Nanbu does appreciate and love his girfriend Excellen Browning. It's just that he tends to ignore her Ms. Fanservice aspects.
- In Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, Larxene flirts with Axel near-constantly, and has zero respect for his personal space (see the Fetish Fuel page for further details). He doesn't blink twice. Of course, Larxene isn't really flirting with him as much as trying to get on his nerves, but Axel's too cool-headed to get annoyed.
- It's a miracle Sonic the Hedgehog or Shadow manage to ignore Rouge's multiple attempts at seducing said hedgehogs. It gets to the point of questioning Shadow's sexuality for the fact that he teams up with her on a multiple basis and hasn't even looked at her Stripperiffic outfit, while she was fighting, flying, or whatnot.
- In the fifth Resident Evil, Excella Gionne is introduced in her Stripperific dress, touching all over Big Bad Albert Wesker, talking about their plans and claiming she's interested in something "much bigger" and glancing down right before sliding her hands down to below his waist level. He really doesn't care. In fact, he shuts her up and gets her to leave, much to her annoyance.
- There is a Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu omake in which Sylvia, a Dancer, gets quickly rebuffed by Sigurd when she tries to join. Recounting the experience to Levin, she concludes with, "I knew it, he's gay."
- Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater: In a cutscene, Snake launches into Description Porn upon being handed a custom-made 1911 pistol—completely disregarding the woman who gave it to him, who just moments ago stripped half-naked, expressly for his benefit.
Web Animation
- Red vs. Blue: The Reds find an underground camera system that happens to show Sister's physical examination. Sarge and Simmons are quite interested, Grif screams at them to stop looking at his sister and Donut complains about the blue base having much nicer lighting than theirs. And Doc, who's administering the physical, is too busy trying to work around Sister's gratuitous posing.
Web Comics
- The Order of the Stick:
- For a long time, Elan's typical attempt to distract enemies with illusions meant an illusory sexy female of the enemy's race. It has never worked quite as planned. The chimera explains that he's in a relationship. A prison guard replies "Sorry, happily married" while the other says "Sorry, I'm Gay". Thog rejects pretty girls for fear of cooties. Ironically, this ends up working quite well on Thog once they stop trying to entice him with sex appeal and start trying to scare him with cooties.
- This strip has Roy's attention-seeking little sister completely failing to distract Durkon from his spell with her "attributes".
- In this one, when Roy is confronted by a schoolgirl outfit-wearing Sabine and she offered herself to him, he chooses to defenestrate her.
- When Gwynn parades around in a belly dancer outfit in Sluggy Freelance, Riff is more concerned with that fact that Dr. Schlock stops breathing once he sees her. So Riff tells Gwynn she looks fat.
- In El Goonish Shive, Tedd tries to argue with his father based on Grace's exposed skin. Mr. Verres casually tells her to button up.
- Later, Tedd himself does this. He is so caught up in trying to find the solution to a problem for Eliot that he ignores Grace's attempts to get his attention.
- Fa'Lina in Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures, will occasionally flaunt her Gag Boobs, often when she's trying to lighten the mood; she gets frustrated when no one seems to notice.
- Ménage à 3: Hello? Naked girl upside down on a pole here!
Web Original
- This "PG-rated porn film".
- During the episode "Lewd Lingerie" of Neurotically Yours, Germaine's second attempt at screwing with guys in the store (the first time resulted in a guys head exploding) is met with no interest. Because it's Franklin
Franklin: Please bitch, I'm here shopping.
Light: I have a question-why is it that whenever we want to work on the Kira investigation we always meet at my apartment?
Mr. Yagami: Oh, you'll see in just a second, Light.
Light: I just don't understand what could be so important...
Misa (in stripper-ware): Okay guys it looks like you have everything you need so I'm gonna go to bed now! Alone! Naked! And with the door unlocked! Bye!
Ryuk: I'll be right there my little apple pie.
Light: Yeah, I still don't see what the big deal is.
- Later when Misa snuggles up next to Light wearing nothing but a Black Bra and Panties:
Light: Misa, stop that! That tickles!
Western Animation
- Batman: The Animated Series
- The episode "Mad Love" shows Harley trying to get Mr. J's attention by wearing the skimpiest red night dress that could ever have been allowed on a children's cartoon, and lying suggestively in front of him seen here. He roughly shoves her away, too absorbed in his plans. Later, Harley gets closer to killing Batman than anyone else in the series because Mr. J spends more attention on him than he does on her. Talk about Foe Yay...
Harley: C'mon Mistah J! Don'cha wanna rev up your Harley? VROOM! VROOM!
- There's also the scene where she celebrates their anniversary by rising up out of a giant pie covered in banana filling, and it's ambiguous whether she's wearing anything underneath. She's also singing "Happy Anniversary" like Marilyn Monroe and asking him to try some of her pie. The Joker promptly throws her out. Then hyenas start licking her, while she's on all fours.
- In one American Dad episode, Francine tries to sweet talk some CIA scientists into giving her a top-secret formula. She tries brushing the straps of her dress off her shoulders, and shimmying off her panties and tossing them at the scientists, but they don't react at all. When she mentions she has brownies, however... BROWNIES!!
- In Sym-Bionic Titan, Kimmy's attempt to seduce Octus into doing her work for her fails miserably.
- In an episode of Superman: The Animated Series, Mxyzptlk's wife Gsptlsnz tries a variety of sexy poses and outfits to get his attention, but he's too absorbed in his plans to get revenge on Superman.
- Robot Chicken: He's Randy the oblivious pizza delivery guy!
- In Futurama, Fry goes crazy in the "Insane in the mainframe" episode, thinking that he is a robot. Leela tries to restore Fry's humanity by giving him a passionate kiss... but i did not work. Even worst, when he got normal again, it seems he did not remember that.
- The Star Sapphire Corp in Green Lantern: The Animated Series are a whole group of Ms. Fanservice dressing in pink, Stripperific outfits and trying to to seduce any male they can find in order to trap them in giant crystals so they can be kept safe by their true loves forever. Their charms prove to have some effect on both Hal and Killowog (though the first is able to show a minor degree of resistance and Killowog only falls for it after they recruited his own true love), but when they attempt the same on Razer, it fails spectacularly.
Real Life
- According to comedian Eddie Griffin, a theater was showing two movies once when he was a kid. One was Porn, the other was a Bruce Lee movie. Guess which one was completely empty?
- During a recent Counter-Strike tournament in Russia, the promoter hired strippers in an attempt to distract the competing teams. Neither team batted an eye.
- J. Michael Straczynski said that Shari Shattuck was disappointed in him for not being on set when her nude scene in the Babylon 5 episode "Voices of Authority" was filmed. He explained that Craft Services was serving ribs for lunch that day, and after a man gets past the age of forty he'll think "Nude woman... ribs... nude woman... ribs... RIBS!" (Come to think of it, Captain Sheridan's reaction to the nude scene in-universe is an example of this trope too.)
- This can even be the reaction of the audience, the very people for whom the Fanservice is intended in the first place, if it's taken too far. If it's too gratuitous, too Squicky or otherwise detracts from the story, the audience may be more irritated or creeped out than turned on.