History Main / BusmansHoliday

This trope is much more likely than not to be lampshaded. Often, upon finishing the impromptu adventure, the hero insists on returning back to work immediately, stating he needs a vacation from his ruined vacation.

The simplest explanation for this phenomenon is the belief that a regular vacation [[WatsonianVersusDoylist would be boring.]] If the main character is fairly low in his job's hierarchy (i.e. a beat cop), it can also nicely justify the utter lack of backup and [[TheMainCharactersDoEverything why a rookie is handling an adventure that should properly go to someone way above his pay grade]].

Compare PulledFromYourDayOff when the character gets called into his ''actual'' job from his vacation. See also ReassignmentBackfire.

* ''Anime/SenkiZesshouSymphogear'': Occurs during episode 7 of Season 3 (GX). The "training" session at the beach is really an excuse for the girls to relax, at least until [[spoiler:Garie shows up.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheNewMrPeabodyAndShermanShow'' has Mr. Peabody explicitly try to have a time travel vacation, only to be surprised when the usual time traveling hijinks ensue forcing him into his usual work.

* ComicBook/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.

** 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/MarvelComicsJubilee 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....

** Clark Kent and ComicBook/LoisLane'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.

** ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1942'': All three times Diana and Etta try to take a vaction 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'': ComicBook/SteveTrevor, 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.

* {{Downplayed}} in ''Fanfic/KimberlyTsGargoyles'' series; while the Manhattan Clan encounter a few problems while on vacation in New Orleans, in general they are able to focus on their original purpose of finding mates for Brooklyn, Lexington and Hudson (as well as Broadway finding a new mate and Angela acknowledging who she really wants).

* In the ''Series/{{Smallville}}'' episode "Escape" Clark and Lois go to a Bed & Breakfast to relax as do Oliver and Chloe. It turns out that this hotel just happens to have a legend about a woman who felt so betrayed that she made a deal with the underworld and was allowed to walk among the living again to kill any man who crosses her path. And wouldn't you know it, AllMythsAreTrue.

* In the episode "[[Recap/SupernaturalS02E18HollywoodBabylon Hollywood Babylon]]" of ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'', Dean Winchester wants to take a vacation in L.A., but they end up working a case.
** The boys' "sacred, annual pilgrimage" to Vegas also ends up as a case in season 7.

* In ''VideoGame/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesTheManhattanProject'', the Turtles are enjoying a vacation in Florida when Shredder initiates his latest plan by making Manhattan Island a floating island, forcing the Turtles back in action.

* In ''VisualNovel/{{Demonbane}}'', the group takes a vacation after Hadou mansion was damaged in a previous battle. At first, it seems to be a BreatherEpisode and BeachEpisode; they do encounter villains like [[MadScientist Dr.West]] and {{mooks}}, but they are also on vacation and get beaten up in comical ways. Then something ''fishy'' occurs, befitting the episode name, ''[[Franchise/CthulhuMythos The Shadow Over Innsmouth]]''.

* In a second-season episode of ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'', 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.

* Henry Kissinger 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}}''.

* ''[[VideoGame/{{Shantae}} Shantae and the Seven Sirens]]'' starts off with Shantae and her friends going on a vacation for the first time to a tropical island after all their previous adventures, where a festival involving half-genies from around the world is held. Naturally, she doesn't get to enjoy herself for long, as the other half-genies suddenly vanish right before the festivities start, so she goes to track them down and find out who or what caused the incident.

* Frequently in the ''VideoGame/SenranKagura'' series, one or several of the girls will be doing personal business, shopping, going to the beach, or whatever, and enemy shinobi will attack, forcing the girls into battle.

** The boys' "sacred, annual pilgrimage" to Vegas also ends up as a case.

* Used to humorous effect in the BeachEpisode of DC's ''ComicBook/{{Legion of Super-Heroes}}'' 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.

* ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'': Clark Kent and ComicBook/LoisLane'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 & 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.

* 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.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': A large portion of episodes involve the Doctor and their companion(s) showing up somewhere to relax or see the sights and stumbling upon another adventure. If they go somewhere and no adventure results, there's no episode about it

*** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS19E7TimeFlight "Time-Flight"]], the Fifth Doctor tries to take Tegan and Nyssa to the Great Exhibition of 1851 to help them get over the recent death of Adric. Instead, they end up at Heathrow Airport in Tegan's time and, from there, discover that Concordes have been vanishing in mid-flight. Ironically, Five had spent the previous several stories trying to get Tegan back to Heathrow Airport in her own time; only once he stops trying does he actually manage it. And then after the TARDIS leaves her there, she realizes ''she didn't want to go home yet after all''.
*** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E2ToothAndClaw "Tooth and Claw"]], the Tenth Doctor tries to take Rose to an Ian Dury concert in 1979. They end up in Scotland in 1879, where they must protect Queen Victoria from a werewolf.
*** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E8TheHungryEarth "The Hungry Earth"]], the Doctor seems to have promised his companions Rio and ends up in a small Welsh village with, of course, a mystery that demands solving... You'd think he'd be smarter by now.
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E1TheDominators "The Dominators"]]: The Second Doctor takes Jamie and Zoe to the peaceful planet Dulkis for "a nice holiday", only for the three of them to become caught up in the Dominators' attempts to exploit the planet for their own ends.
** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E2CityOfDeath "City of Death"]] and [[Recap/DoctorWhoS18E1TheLeisureHive "The Leisure Hive"]], the Doctor and Romana go on holiday only to, well, have to save planets/people, of course. At the end of the second story, the Doctor mentions wanting a holiday from his holiday. (It could be argued that the Doctor is almost always on vacation, but these are instances where it's explicitly mentioned as his primary goal.)

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E11BoomTown "Boom Town"]]: The Doctor, Rose and Jack need to spend some time in Cardiff to let the TARDIS refuel at the Rift, and are planning on having a breather in a perfectly safe city ... only for the Doctor to discover that a presumed-dead enemy has become the mayor.
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E1NewEarth "New Earth"]]: Ten visits a New Earth hospital with Rose after a call from on old friend on his deathbed, only to end up having Rose's mind taken over by a presumed-dead enemy and the hospital hiding a dark secret.
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E10Midnight "Midnight"]]: The Doctor and Donna go to a spa/holiday planet for some relaxation, and the Doctor takes a tour bus out to see a diamond waterfall while Donna soaks in hot tubs. ''Donna'' manages to get a vacation more or less, but the Doctor's tour bus is attacked by [[NothingIsScarier an unseen entity]] and the Doctor is nearly killed. [[KilledOffForReal Permanently.]]
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E14TheNextDoctor "The Next Doctor"]]: The Tenth Doctor lands in VictorianLondon to see the sights... then another Doctor appears to apprehend a Cybershade and the plot begins.

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E4TheTimeOfAngels "The Time of Angels"]]: Eleven and Amy's trip to a museum is cut short by a discovering a homing black box with temporal co-ordinates sent 12,000 years earlier by an old friend. The same friend [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E12ThePandoricaOpens later]] (earlier from her point of view) also defaces one of the first cliffs in existence to call the Doctor.
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E6TheVampiresOfVenice "The Vampires of Venice"]]: The Doctor takes Amy and Rory to the romantic destination of their choice as a wedding gift — presumably anticipating more ice-cream and gondola rides than vampires.

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS38E3Orphan55 "Orphan 55"]]: The Thirteenth Doctor and her companions go to Tranquillity Spa for a break... only for the place to come under attack from hostile creatures. As it turns out, the spa is hiding some deadly secrets.

* On ''{{Series/Emergency}}'', paramedics Gage and Desoto try to take a fishing trip, and end up having to rescue one guy. help treat another and even propose an emergency response medical service for that sparsely populated rural county.

* ''Series/MurdochMysteries'': Detective William Murdoch and his wife Julia apparently cannot have their honeymoon in New York without unveiling a conspiracy ("Murdoch Takes Manhattan") or go camping in the countryside without stumbling onto a murdered corpse right next to their tent ("Brakenreid Boudoir").

* A large segment of the ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'' episode [[Recap/SherlockS03E02TheSignOfThree "The Sign of Three"]] is spent at John Watson's wedding, where Sherlock Holmes is his best man. The wedding is uneventful, with Sherlock's best man speech consisting of his recollection of his various adventures with John. However as he talks through two of his most intriguing (and unsolved) experiences with John [[spoiler:he realizes something in his story didn't add up and that someone knew something they shouldn't have, the only place they might have learned it being from John's wedding invitation. He puts together that someone was trying to glean information about the wedding in order to target a guest who would otherwise be inaccessible due to his reclusive lifestyle, only coming out of his home in order to see John get married. Suddenly his wedding speech turns into a stall for time as he frantically tries to work out who the culprit and potential victim are, full of a bunch of random tangents to keep all the guests sitting so no one can escape his proximity]]. Even on his big day, John and Sherlock can't get away from mystery and murder.

* ''Series/StarskyAndHutch'' has "Satan's Witches," in which a quiet fishing trip in the woods is interrupted by virgin-sacrificing Satanists.
* ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries''

* In the episode [[Recap/SupernaturalS02E18HollywoodBabylon "Hollywood Babylon"]] of ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'', Dean Winchester wants to take a vacation in L.A., but they end up working a case.

* In ''Film/SherlockHolmesAGameOfShadows'': Holmes begrudgingly allows Watson and Mary to go on their honeymoon. Almost immediately after their train leaves, the two are beset by Moriarty's thugs, with Sherlock coming along to protect them. Watson angrily assumes that Holmes deliberately led them there, but Holmes correctly points out that the thugs are specifically there to kill Watson and Mary. This pretty much obligates Watson to help Holmes complete his investigation while Mary stays in witness protection with Sherlock's brother Mycroft. It's even moreso this trope when you remember that Watson was dissolving his professional partnership with Holmes in order to be a proper husband to Mary, and was trying to do so in [[Film/SherlockHolmes2009 the first movie]] as well, with Holmes deliberately setting things up so that Watson would be compelled to join him on the investigation. This is less a Busmans Holiday and more a Busman's Retirement.

* ''Manga/DetectiveConan'':

* Happens every time in the ''Franchise/PrettyCure'' franchise. The main characters are ''always'' attacked by the villains.

* OlderThanTelevision: In a couple of the Franchise/SherlockHolmes stories (''The Adventure of the Reigate Puzzle'' and ''The Devil's Foot''), Holmes has worked himself almost to the point of a nervous breakdown, prompting Watson to drag him off on a vacation. Of course they immediately run into a mystery that needs solving--much to Holmes' delight, and Watson's annoyance.

* ''Fanfic/LeaveForMendeleiev'': Aurore takes Marinette to the ice rink so that she can unwind after having a harrowing experience while helping Nino with his movie project. Unfortunately, they happen to visit at the same time Mayor Andre is there harassing the owner. Neither girl is particularly surprised when this leads to another akuma, though Aurore is particularly ticked off and [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech goes off]] on both Frozen and Hawkmoth.

* ''Manga/RosarioToVampire'': Two summer holidays and a heat wave break from Yokai Academy result in this.

** ComicBook/{{Cyclops}} is told by ComicBook/ProfessorX to take a holiday, and he does. Over the span of a four issue miniseries, he has to fight off two supervillains, a paramilitary unit and a tentacled monster. Not quite a straight example, since he was only told to take time off from leading a team and he mostly succeeded.
** Played straight during the Phoenix and Cyclops miniseries: ComicBook/JeanGrey 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 ComicBook/JubileeMarvelComics, 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....

** Invoked in the episode "The Nazi on the Honeymoon", where [[MarriedToTheJob workaholic]] Brennan insists on helping the local authorities solve a murder while in Buenos Aires for her honeymoon with Booth, who is reluctant until learning that the character in her books that she based on him is [[BigInJapan a popular hero in Argentina]]. [[spoiler:It turns out to be for the best, as the local forensic anthropologist that had been assigned to the case ended up being the murderer.]]

* In ''VideoGame/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesIIITheManhattanProject''', the Turtles are enjoying a vacation in Florida when Shredder initiates his latest plan by making Manhattan Island a floating island, forcing the Turtles back in action.

** 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 ComicBook/{{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....

** In the manga, during Phoenix and Maya's visit to Sparkle Land, a murder takes place and it falls on Phoenix to defend the accused using what he's observed. HilarityEnsues when Phoenix meets the cast of the Sparklestar show, and they begin speculating who called a lawyer and why.