History Main / BusmansHoliday

* It's becoming more and more common, when applying for a computer programming job, for the interviewer to ask about an applicant's [=GitHub=] contributions. While there's certainly nothing wrong with coders writing code on their free time, assuming or even expecting that they do so comes loaded with UnfortunateImplications.

* A minor example with Mac from ''Series/{{CSINY}}''. In season 5, he uses his day off to reinvestigate a closed case that had been bugging him. To his credit, tho, he did keep checking in with Lindsay, who was in the hospital anticipating the birth of her and Danny's first child. In the end, he uncovered the real culprit...and became a godfather!

** In ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy'' and ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy2'', Bowser attacks the star festival with battleships and kidnaps Peach to make her his prize when he conquers the universe.
** ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBrosWii'' starts with the heroes at Princess Peach's birthday party. Cue attack by the Koopalings and Bowser Jr.

** Exaggerated in ''VideoGame/SuperPrincessPeach''. Peach goes out for a stroll, just long enough for Bowser's minions to enter her castle and wreak havoc with the Vibe Scepter and capture Mario and Luigi.

** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBrosWonder'': Mario and all of his friends visit Prince Florian in thr Flower Kingdom for some fun, Until Bowser shows up and steals the Wonder Flower, fusing him with Prince Florian's Castle. Now the good guys have to gather the Royal Seeds to stop Bowser's latest plot and return peace to the Flower Kingdom.

* In a second-season episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Young Justice|2010}}'', the female team members are having a bridal shower for Rocket when Captain Cold tries to rob a bank right across the street. After his ice is suddenly shattered he looks up to see just how many superheroes are arrayed against him.

* In the ill-fated ''WesternAnimation/BattleTech'' cartoon, supporting character and comic relief rogue Val Ryder is found by Adam and his crew playing simulated HumongousMecha Battlemech hologram duels in dive bars, sometimes for money. Val is a proper 'Mechwarrior himself and so could be doing the same thing at full scale for pay as a mercenary, but he correctly points out that the consequences of losing in a video game are much less dire, especially for someone as aggressive in combat as he is. This serves as {{Foreshadowing}} because he ends up losing his family's ancestral ''Centurion'' Battlemech because of his risk-taking, red-line piloting style.

* Dewey the librarian in ''Webcomic/{{Unshelved}}'' spends his day off [[http://www.unshelved.com/archive.aspx?strip=20080726 reading.]]

Compare PulledFromYourDayOff when the character gets called into their ''actual'' job from their vacation. See also ReassignmentBackfire. For cases when the character has to perform their own job or duty to solve an ongoing problem occuring in the place where they originally planned to take a rest, see TourismDerailingEvent.

* Used to humorous effect in the BeachEpisode of DC's ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'' comic; a thief grows increasingly nervous about the endless stream of Legionnaires showing up, convinced they're there to bust him. In fact most of them are only there to goof off, and even the two who are investigating his thefts aren't making much progress and have no idea he's involved; everyone is rather baffled when he finally panics and confesses all.
* ComicBook/TheFlash, ComicBook/GreenLantern, and ComicBook/GreenArrow once attempted to [[HoYay take a relaxing cruise together]]. The cruise ship just ''happens'' to be secretly transporting [[spoiler:a comatose supervillain]] and a gang of ''other'' supervillains on a recovery mission. HilarityEnsues.
* Characters/BlackCanary goes on a vacation in ''ComicBook/BirdsOfPrey'' #50 and is promptly abducted into her next case. The name of the issue? "Busman's Holiday", of course.

** Played straight during the Phoenix and Cyclops miniseries: [[Characters/MarvelComicsJeanGrey Jean Grey]] and Cyclops attempt a honeymoon, but end up being taken into the future to raise their son for ten years.
** Of course the rest of the team themselves can hardly take a real break. In one of their earliest time offs they end up being abducted by Sentinels who bring them to outer space and they have to fight their way back to Earth. They then take the chance to enjoy a vacation in Banshee's home, where their enemies the Juggernaut and Black Tom are waiting for them. Then there's this time when the ladies spend the day shopping and end up rescuing [[Characters/XMen90sMembers Jubilee]], who hangs out in that particular mall, while the men go out drinking and push off a full-scale alien invasion. There's also this time when they choose to relax in the Savage Land, they find the place destroyed, and take it to themselves to restore the whole place. Then there's this time where they get ambushed by ninjas, etc. etc....
* From elsewhere in the Marvel Universe, ComicBook/{{SHIELD}} agents have learned to prepare for any vacation to turn into a mission. See ''Blog/SurvivalTipsForSHIELDRecruits'' under "Web Original".
* Jenkins from ''ComicBook/AtomicRobo'' gets attacked by a beach full of mooks when he is forced to go on vacation. And that's only part of it. His week off is entirely spent in destroying a crime syndicate. However, this is ''[[MemeticBadass Jenkins]]'' we're talking about; a week fighting drug lords is ''relaxing'' to him.
* In her spare time, Ninjette from ''ComicBook/{{Empowered}}'' likes to play videogames, where the hero is... a ninja.
* There is a ''WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck'' cartoon in ''Magazine/DisneyAdventures'' with this very name. He keeps getting in Latin Darkwing's way. At the end, the he takes a Busman's Holiday in Darkwing's city.
* ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'':
** Clark Kent and [[Characters/SupermanLoisLane Lois Lane]]'s relaxing honeymoon away from the rigors of investigative reporting (which in the DCU, ''especially'' in Metropolis, means "escaping from Apokolips-backed gangsters and uncovering [[MegaCorp Lexcorp]]-financed {{Supervillain Lair}}s") predictably turns into a kidnapping-cum-terrorist attack by a foreign conspiracy ring.
** Way back in Superman #76, Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne take a cruise (and end up assigned as roommates because the ship is overbooked). Naturally, a crime is committed and The World's Finest Team is born.
* ''ComicBook/Robin1993'': Tim takes a weekend off from crimefighting to go to the beach with his classmates. Their hotel is then attacked by a swarm of ninjas who kidnap one of said classmates.
* ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}'': The Runaways got sucked into the middle of ''ComicBook/SecretInvasion2008'' while trying to take a day off to let their newest member [[FishOutOfTemporalWater Klara]] get acclimated to the 21st century.
* The ComicBook/DemonKnights became a team because they all just happened to be taking a busman's holiday in the same tiny village, which just happened to be set upon by the Questing Queen.
* An unpublished ''WesternAnimation/HiHiPuffyAmiYumi'' story for DC Comics, "Working Holiday", has the girls unable to enjoy their day off at Dizzyland Amusement Park because of hysterical fans who want their autographs and to pose for photos.
* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman'':
** ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1942'': All three times Diana and Etta try to take a vacation they end up fighting bad guys, once one of Paula's agents who snuck aboard their plane, then a group of cattle rustlers, and finally then some alien invaders.
** ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1987'': [[Characters/WonderWomanAllies Steve Trevor]], at a point where he'd retired from the Air Force and was acting as a commercial pilot, was asked to fly the plane he was taking on vacation when the flight crew carried out a SuicidePact while the thing was on auto pilot.
* Lightly parodied in one issue of ''ComicBook/{{Static}}'', in which Virgil and his friends want to go see a movie. At the same time, the fearsome super-powered gangbangers of the ''ComicBook/BloodSyndicate'' want to see the same movie, at the same theater. The stage is set for a huge clash... [[spoiler:that never actually happens. Everybody watches the movie, Static claps, the Syndicate members walk out, and that's the end of the story.]]
* ''ComicBook/GreenLantern1941'': Doiby Dickles, a cab driver, is ordered by his doctor to take some time off for his shoulder and arm to heal and while on vacation accidentally buys a cab due to the language barrier.
* In the ''ComicBook/SavageAvengers'' one-shot for ''ComicBook/{{Empyre}}'', Characters/{{Venom|EddieBrock}} and Franchise/ConanTheBarbarian just want to enjoy the sights in Mexico when the Cotati invasion reaches them. The one-shot ends with them getting back to their vacation.

* [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]] on ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'' -- Comicbook/{{AQUAMAN}} is sight-seeing on the surface with his family, but is bored stiff and wants to go fight crime. He keeps slipping away whenever he sees news of another superhero in need of aid.

** Literature/HerculePoirot had this happen to him several times, most notably in ''Literature/MurderOnTheOrientExpress'', ''Literature/DeathOnTheNile'', ''Murder in Mesopotamia'' and ''Appointment with Death'' and ''Literature/EvilUnderTheSun''. Captain Hastings name-drops the trope in ''Dumb Witness'', another Poirot novel. Lampshaded in ''The Hollow'', where Poirot mistakes the murder scene for a prank, and is not amused. In "The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding", the murder scene ''is'' a prank, laid on in Poirot's honor by some youngsters holidaying in the same spot -- or is it?

* UsefulNotes/HenryKissinger is a political scientist and diplomat who while serving as the US Secretary of State had to negotiate countless political deals, often in quite tense circumstances. His favourite board game is ''TabletopGame/{{Diplomacy}}''.

* The ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}'' got sucked into the middle of the ComicBook/SecretInvasion while trying to take a day off to let their newest member [[FishOutOfTemporalWater Klara]] get acclimated to the 21st century.

* ''Series/{{Castle}}'':

* ''Series/{{CSI}}'': "Appendicitement" has lab tech Henry get ambushed by Nick, Greg, and Hodges on his birthday/day off, as the three insist on taking him to the best barbecue joint in Nevada. When they get there, it's closed down due to a hep B outbreak ([[spoiler:thanks to the former owner being served up on the grill]]), and there's a dead man with a raccoon welded to his face.

** "Citadel", the last piece of story DLC for ''VideoGame/MassEffect3''. Admiral Hackett puts Shepard's team on mandatory shore leave to cool off, with Anderson offering up his old apartment on the Citadel. No sooner has Shepard sat down in a nice restaurant than they're engulfed in a conspiracy personally targeting them. Thankfully, they get some actual downtime once the mission's over.

* In ''Series/Poirot'', Hercule Poirot canNOT go on vacation without somebody needing him to solve a crime, usually murder.
** Miss Lemon mentions it by name in S8E01 "Evil Under the Sun".

* ''The Gourmet Detective: A Healthy Place to Die'' opens with Detective Maggie Price ordered to take a vacation, and convinced to accompany Henry Ross- the titular "Gourmet Detective", a famous food critic- to a major convention at a spa, during which she ends up helping to investigate the murder of a journalist.

* In the ''Franchise/SpiderMan'' fanfic ''[[Fanfic/UltimateSpiderWoman Ultimate Spider-Woman: Change With the Light]]'', Mary Jane's trip to Fire Island is interrupted by Polestar, much to her displeasure. Briefly {{lampshade|Hanging}}d when she's glad she listened to her nagging intuition and brought her costume with her to the beach, despite her initially not wanting to.