History Main / BusmansHoliday

A detective, for example, goes on holiday. While he or she is on that holiday, a murder will take place in the vicinity and they will be [[ClosedCircle forced to solve that case]]. If the killer knows the detective is there, they're either very stupid, very [[{{Pride}} arrogant]] or is plotting something big.

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.

* In the Terry Tate-Office Linebacker commercials, Terry tackles people that are slacking on the job or not following company policy in one way or another to increase productivity. However when he is forced to take a vacation because he never takes a day off, he is so dissatisfied with the service at the hotel that he applies his usual work methods at the office to the hotel during his vacation. It works, as even the manager of the hotel says that production has never been so high.

* The girls of Team Kimba can't go anywhere in the ''WhateleyUniverse'' without ''something'' happening, or someone attacking them. Over Christmas break, the six girls go to six different cities. Six fights with badguys.

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* The equivalent expression in Creator/DianeDuane's ''Literature/YoungWizards'' books is "Wizard's Holiday", which became the title of the seventh book.

* Fred Dibnah, the famous British steeplejack, was divorced by one of his wives after one too many holidays spent fixing chimneys.

* 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 {{Lampshaded}} 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.

** {{Lampshade}}d in "Mr. Monk Gets Cabin Fever":

* In the ''Franchise/{{Doctor Who|ExpandedUniverse}}'' adventure game ''TARDIS'', Amy [[LampshadeHanging Lampshades]] that a lot of the Doctor's holidays always go wrong. The Doctor is upset by this, trying to prove Amy wrong by heading to 23rd century London, only to lead into the cliffhanger for the next game, involving alien sharks and flesh-eating shadows.

-->-- '''[[LemonyNarrator Lemony Snicket]]''', ''[[ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents The Penultimate Peril]]''

* The [[MonsterOfTheWeek monsters of the week]] normally only ever attacked the one specific Tokyo district where ''Anime/SailorMoon'' and her friends lived (Azabu-Juuban, if you were wondering). However, whatever remote location they decided to go for vacation, the ClassTrip, or a BeachEpisode invariably either just happened to have one there too... or was the home of such oddities as baby pleiosaurs, or ghosts.

** Then later zigzagged in the "Snowy Mountain Syndrome" and "Where Did The Cat Go?" stories later. The SOS Brigade goes to one of Tsuruya's family winter retreats so that Haruhi can hunt down another closed-circle mystery. [[spoiler:Due to her knowledge that Itsuki had set up the "Remote Island Syndrome" mystery with his "relatives", Haruhi ordered him to set up another one for the winter retreat.]] Everything seems to follow plans, until the Brigade goes out skiing, then getting lost in an abrupt snowstorm and stumbling on a mysterious mansion in the middle of the blizzard, [[spoiler: which is actually a distorted data space created by a different entity than Yuki's Data Overmind]]. Cue the usual "Brigade solving the issue while keeping TheMasquerade intact for Haruhi" antics, complete with a shaky-but-acceptable-to-Haruhi cover story; [[spoiler:the Brigade, specifically Itsuki, insists to Haruhi that it was a group hypnosis]]. Then back to the Tsuruya retreat, where the intended plot unfolds. Despite the prior planning [[spoiler:Itsuki even hunts down a cat that looks similar to Shamisen in order for his plot to unfold]], Haruhi manages to break down the headscratcher puzzle fairly quickly, and without much fanfare. In the end, the main event had very little supernatural and story depth. [[spoiler:Itsuki even admits this to Kyon, citing that he prefers to be a side character rather than the mastermind, much to his chagrin when Haruhi insists that he also plan another plot for the next SOS Brigade summer retreat.]]

* In ''Manga/XxxHoLic'' Watanuki cannot have peace. Ever. He's a CosmicPlaything being forced to WorkOffTheDebt [[spoiler: of his time-displaced clone]], and every SideQuest he gets sent on [[spoiler: builds the relationships he needs to assure his own existence]].

* Subverted in ''Manga/{{Monster}}''. [[InspectorJavert Inspector Lunge]], who is MarriedToTheJob, is forced into mandatory vacation due to obsessing over a particular case. While visiting a peaceful west-German village and taking some time off, he is approached by local police to help them on a case, and turns them down. [[spoiler:Then DoubleSubverted as the town he went to just so happens to be ground zero for a final confrontation between Johan and Tenma.]]

* TheFlash, Comicbook/GreenLantern, and 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.

* Of course the ''ComicBook/{{XMen}}'' 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 a mutant who hangs out in that particular mall (the mutant is Jubilee, just FYI), 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....

* There was a ''WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck'' cartoon in ''DisneyAdventures'' with this very name. He keeps getting in Latin Darkwing's way. At the end, the Latin {{Expy}} takes a Busman's Holiday in Darkwing's city.

* The 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.

* In the ''Franchise/LyricalNanoha''[=/=]DCAnimatedUniverse crossover ''FanFic/TakamachiNanohaOf2814'', Superman laments that this happens to him whenever he takes a vacation somewhere other than Smallville. Batman refuses to believe that the 'vacation curse' is real, while taking a vacation in Japan and making it a BusmansHoliday ''on purpose''. Of course Batman just planned on beating up petty criminals, to someone who deals with the likes of SelfDemonstrating/TheJoker that's a vacation. [[spoiler: Of course, he then ends up involved in the Holy Grail War, proving that YouCantFightFate]]

* In the ''WesternAnimation/ThePiratesInAnAdventureWithScientists'' fanfic ''[[FanFic/ThePiratesverse An Adventure With Napoleon]]'', the pirates have anchored their boat and are simply enjoying the nice weather when Napoleon finds them. Lampshaded at the end, when they sail off to find a "proper holiday."

* In ''Film/WhatAboutBob?'' Richard Dreyfuss' psychiatrist character, Dr. Leo Marvin, goes on vacation to get away from his neurotic, clingy patient Bob Wiley. Bob follows him, and his continued antics lead to the following exchange:

* In ''Film/Speed2CruiseControl'', the super cop protagonist goes on a cruise vacation with his girlfriend that, naturally ends up being [[DieHardOnAnX hijacked by a madman]].

* Played with in ''TheNet'', in which SandraBullock's character Angela is working on debugging a computer program using her laptop, while on vacation at the beach, not because she is forced to, but rather because that's the way she is. It is {{lampshade|Hanging}}d by the male lead[[spoiler:/main villain]], also a computer programmer, who first meets Angela during this incident.

* CliffRichard plays a literal example in the 1963 film ''Summer Holiday''.

*** Lampshaded in ''The Hollow'', where Poirot mistakes the murder scene for a prank, and is unamused.

** This trope is {{Lampshaded}} in ''Discworld/TheTruth'', in which William and Sacharissa eventually become so used to being reporters that, when they try to slip away for an afternoon, a traffic accident immediately causes both to revert to journalist mode. William suspected the ever-hungry printing press would derail their desire for a quiet break from work--not even a vacation, just a half-day--and (given Discworld's high narrative-causality quotient) he [[SelfFulfillingProphecy was right]].

** They even ''assume'' that they will be taking a BusmansHoliday wherever they go, such as when Dawn goes to visit her dad in California and remarks that she may babysit for some of her old clients while she's there. You know, because their parents wouldn't have found new sitters since she left the state, and would be so thoughtless as to intrude on her two weeks with her non-custodial parent by asking her to work.
* Similarly, everytime Literature/NancyDrew went anywhere on vacation, a mystery inevitably arose.

* Any time Jessica Fletcher (of ''MurderSheWrote'') leaves Cabot Cove, she immediately gets involved with a case. Technically, crime solving's [[AmateurSleuth not her "real" job]], but it might as well be as far as the series goes. (One wonders if Cabot Cove's unusually-high murder rate actually ''drops'' when she's gone... As a stand-up comedian once said, "Wherever that little white woman goes, people ''die!''")
* An episode of ''Series/{{Castle}}'' invoked this when Castle goes to spend a relaxing weekend in the Hamptons but a murder victim stumbles into his backyard and dies in his pool. He mentions that it feels like he is Jessica Fletcher in an episode of ''MurderSheWrote''. The episode was even titled "[[PopCulturePunEpisodeTitle Murder He Wrote]]".

* In ''PushingDaisies'' Ned's visits to a magic show, a cooking contest, and a swimming show all end up with mysteries to be solved. One wonders if death isn't following him around in a way other than the obvious.

* In the ''Series/{{Covert Affairs}}'' episode ''Half a World Away'', Auggie goes on vacation to Istanbul, having volunteered to help with the sound setup for a major jazz festival. His setup picks up a voice he recognizes as the terrorist who blinded him, and his vacation turns into an unofficial op.
* In the ''MissionImpossible'' episode ''Kidnap'', Jim and Barney are on vacation, and Jim is planning a tennis game like it's a mission, talking about the opponent's weaknesses and how to go after him.
* Happens unintentionally to JD in the ''{{Scrubs}}'' episode ''My Way Home''. On his day off, he's paged by an intern to answer a (rather easy and pointless) question. He spends the rest of the episode trying to leave the hospital and get home, but keeps getting caught and interrupted.
* ''InspectorMorse'' and Sergeant Lewis once went on a holiday to Italy and Morse investigated the death of a British citizen in an apparent accident that he was convinced was murder. [[spoiler:It turns out he could have just enjoyed his holiday, as it really was an accident, but ended up exposing a tangentially related conspiracy and arresting an actual murderer for his troubles]].

* ''{{Grimm}}'' when Nick goes on vacation for a few days to propose to Juliet, he gets a break from his police work though ends up helping out a woman in an abusive relationship when it turns out the couple are wesen (supernatural creatures).

* In the western version of the story of ''TailsAdventure'', the title character was taking one of these after his previous adventure, only to be woken up by a bomb going off in the forest.

** For that matter, ''PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'' starts with Mario simply heading to Rogueport to join Peach in searching for treasure. He runs into TheDragon the second his ship arrives, and it just gets worse from there.

* In the ''[[Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse Doctor Who]]'' adventure game ''TARDIS'', Amy [[LampshadeHanging Lampshades]] that a lot of the Doctor's holidays always go wrong. The Doctor is upset by this, trying to prove Amy wrong by heading to 23rd century London, only to lead into the cliffhanger for the next game, involving alien sharks and flesh-eating shadows.

* In ''SpyroTheDragon: Ripto's Rage,'' Spyro and Sparx decide to go on vacation to the theme park Dragon Shores... only to get picked up by the Professor and Elora, who need him to save the world for him. Although they do occasionally remember that he's technically on vacation and throw him a bone, mostly, he doesn't get to relax like he wants to until the very end.
* In {{Demonbane}}, the group take a vacation after Hadou mansion was damaged in previous battle. At first, it seem to be a {{Breather|Episode}} BeachEpisode, they do encounter the villains like [[MadScientist Dr.West]] and {{mook}}s - who are also on vacation and got beaten in comical way. Then something ''fishy'' occur, befitting the episode name ''[[CthulhuMythos The Shadow Over]] [[TownWithADarkSecret Innsmouth]]''.

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

* SurvivalTipsForSHIELDRecruits: This is the only type of holiday a SHIELD agent can [[GenreSavvy expect to have]].

* It became a running joke in the ''GlobalGuardiansPBEMUniverse'' that superheroes should never go on vacation, because when they do, something bad always happens. Supervillains attacked [[DisneyThemeParks Walt Disney World]] while the heroes are attending in SecretIdentity with their families. The Caribbean resort they go to gets hit by a hurricane and the entire island needs rescue and evacuation. The cruise ship they sail on is attacked by a kraken. A werewolf stalks the tourists to the mountain lodge they've escaped to. The Atlanteans attack if they go to the beach. It was just easier for them to stay home some days.

* ''TheRealGhostbusters'' episode, "Bustman's Holiday".

* Anytime the girls of ''WesternAnimation/TotallySpies'' try to relax, a mission is not too far away.
** Although on at least one occasion, the whole "vacation" was a secret training session planned by Jerry to seem like this. [[spoiler: And then, after this was revealed, there ended up being a REAL emergency...]]
* PlayedWith 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.

* In ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDragonJakeLong'', Jake's Dad took him into a camping trip. There, he met a village of sprites needing help against the Jersey Devil. In another episode, a family reunion was interrupted by a bunch of magical sharks.
** In the SeriesFinale, the main characters' family vacation to Hong Kong is interrupted the BigBad's attack on a once-in-a-thousand-years ceremony.

* This can be true of any profession, but computer programmers are unusual in that it's downright ''expected''. Any good programmer who doesn't cook up useful widgets for his phone, or contribute to some open source project, or hack together little video games, or ''something'' in his free time is an odd duck. This is so ingrained that Google has its employees take 20% of their work week to do something besides work, with the expectation that a lot of this will happen and some of it will be usable by the company. AndItWorked, since one of those employees cooked up a little thing based on a personal project which became... ''[[http://time.com/43263/gmail-10th-anniversary/ The one and only Gmail.]]''

* After finishing the principal photography on ''Film/TheAvengers'', JossWhedon had about two weeks or so to rest before overseeing post-production. So what did he do? He invited a few friends over to his house for twelve days... and made a movie (specifically, a low-budget production of [[Creator/WilliamShakespeare Shakespeare's]] ''Theatre/MuchAdoAboutNothing'').

* Many AbridgedSeries creators, such as Creator/LittleKuriboh and Creator/MasakoX, make at least some of their living doing freelance video editing or voice-over work for professional productions. This is a bit of an inversion: rather than doing their job while on vacation, they've figured out a way to get paid for their hobby.

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** Literature/HerculePoirot had this happen to him several times, most notably in ''Literature/MurderOnTheOrientExpress'', ''DeathOnTheNile'', and ''EvilUnderTheSun''.

** Literature/HerculePoirot had this happen to him several times, most notably in ''Murder on the Orient Express'', ''Death on the Nile'', and ''Evil Under the Sun''.

** Literature/HerculePoirot had this happen to him several times, most notably in ''Murder on the Orient Express'', ''Death on the Nile'', and ''Evil Under the Sun'', but also in ''Murder in Mesopotamia'' and ''Appointment with Death''.

* OlderThanTelevision: In a couple of the ''Franchise/SherlockHolmes'' stories (''The Adventure of the Reigate Puzzle'' (1893) and ''The Devil's Foot'' (1910)), 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.

** Literature/HerculePoirot had this happen to him several times, most notably in ''Murder on the Orient Express'' (1934), ''Death on the Nile'' (1937), and ''Evil Under the Sun'' (1941), but also in ''Murder in Mesopotamia'' (1936) and ''Appointment with Death'' (1938).

** Literature/HerculePoirot had this happen to him several times, most notably in ''Murder on the Orient Express'' (1934) and ''Death on the Nile'' (1937), but also in ''Murder in Mesopotamia'' (1936) and ''Appointment with Death'' (1938).

* The entire plot of ''VideoGame/WarioLand'' for the VirtualBoy. Wario lands his plane in the Awazon Rainforest for a vacation, sees Mask Guys heading behind a waterfall with a huge amount of treasure... gets dropped into a trapdoor and falls into a sort of LostWorld beneath the jungle, getting treasure and fighting a genie along the way.

* Writers. Since the invention of the laptop (and, frankly, even before that, the notepad) have made it so easy, and since their job isn't exactly physically demanding (mentally, on the other hand...), it's not uncommon for them to occasionally scribble down ideas that they might elaborate on later. Although, they usually do enjoy their vacation, with the occasional burst of writing during downtime, such as before bed.

* This can be true of any profession, but computer programmers are unusual in that it's downright ''expected''. Any good programmer who doesn't cook up useful widgets for his phone, or contribute to some open source project, or hack together little video games, or ''something'' in his free time is an odd duck. This is so ingrained that Google has its employees take 20% of their work week to do something besides work, with the expectation that a lot of this will happen and some of it will be usable by the company.

* In the ''Series/DoctorWho'' stories ''[[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.)
** Eleven's first series keeps doing this too: in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E06TheVampiresOfVenice 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. In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E08TheHungryEarth The Hungry Earth]]'', the Doctor seems to have promised his companions Rio and ended up in a small Welsh village with, of course, a mystery that demands solving... You'd think he'd be a bit more GenreSavvy by now.
** In "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 later (earlier from her point of view) also defaces one of the first cliffs in existence to call the Doctor in the series 5 finale.

** In the 2008 Christmas special "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.
** Ten explores a New Earth hospital with Rose, only to end up having Rose's mind taken over by a presumed-dead enemy and the hospital hiding a dark secret.
** The Fifth Doctor spends a bit of time trying to get to The Eye of Orion, the most peaceful place in the universe. When he finally gets there, he gets roped into the events of The Five Doctors.
** Also happens in the Tenth Doctor episode ''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.]]
** In "The End of Time", the Doctor explains to Ood Sigma that he went on a vacation and married Queen Elizabeth I. In "The Day of the Doctor", we learned that said marriage involved trying to stop a Zygon invasion [[spoiler: and saving Gallifrey, but he doesn't remember doing so]].
** In "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.
* As a result of the TARDIS's tendency to materialise at the wrong point in space and/or time, several ''Doctor Who'' stories include a variation on this trope where the Doctor and his companions fail to even reach their intended holiday destination:
** In "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.
** In "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.

* The [[MonsterOfTheWeek monsters of the week]] normally only ever attacked the one specific Tokyo district where ''Manga/SailorMoon'' and her friends lived (Azabu-Juuban, if you were wondering). However, whatever remote location they decided to go for vacation, the ClassTrip, or a BeachEpisode invariably either just happened to have one there too... or was the home of such oddities as baby pleiosaurs, or ghosts.

* In ''Fanfic/WhiteDevilOfTheMoon'', [[LyricalNanoha Nanoha]] and Fate return home while Nanoha is recuperating from her injuries brought on by [[MarriedToTheJob her being a workaholic]] (and, as it turns out, for Kyouya and Shinobu's wedding), but end up catching the attention of Luna, who recognizes Nanoha as the reincarnation of [[SailorMoon Princess Serenity]]. A few fights ensue as the result of [[PoorCommunicationKills Luna refusing to explain herself because she assumes Fate is evil]]. Fate is initially reluctant to tell Nanoha, knowing that Nanoha will get involved despite her condition, but Fate is ultimately forced to tell her, not long before a Dark Kingdom attempt on Nanoha's life ends the vacation and sets the plot into motion.

* From elsewhere in the Marvel Universe, [[AgentsOfSHIELD SHIELD]] [[SurvivalTipsForSHIELDRecruits agents]] have learned to prepare [[GenreSavvy for any vacation to turn into a mission]]. See SurvivalTipsForSHIELDRecruits under "Web Original."

* ''VisualNovel/AceAttorney'':

** In the ''AceAttorneyInvestigations'' manga, this happens less often, since Edgeworth and/or Gumshoe are often at the scene on business, but there are some exceptions, such as when the lead singer of Bird Wing is killed while Edgeworth and Gumshoe are attending the band's last concert, or when Edgeworth and Gumshoe go to a clinic with colds, and a patient ends up dead.

* Whenever the protagonist in the ''VisualNovel/AceAttorney'' series takes an interest in anything, someone will die in connection to it. Many members of the EconomyCast [[LampshadeHanging pick up on this]], but think it's ''them'' with the bad luck.
** This continues in the GaidenGame, ''VisualNovel/AceAttorneyInvestigations.'' The second case has Edgeworth on an airplane. When he goes to use the in-flight elevator, there's a body inside.
*** Yep, it's a murder. [[spoiler: And poor Edgeworth's the first suspect. At least he'd already taken the vacation beforehand.]]

* ''Film/RushHour 2'' has Carter and Lee on vacation in Hong Kong following their exploits in the last film. Turns out Lee is secretly on assignment to investigate a bombing of a U.S. Embassy and it doesn't take long before the two are swapping blows with the Chinese mafia.

A detective, for example, goes on holiday. While he or she is on that holiday, a murder will take place in the vicinity and they will be [[ClosedCircle forced to solve that case]]. If the killer actually knows the detective is there, they're either very stupid, very [[{{Pride}} arrogant]] or is plotting something big.

The simplest explanation for this phenomenon is that a regular vacation [[WatsonianVersusDoylist wouldn't make a very entertaining episode.]]

* Similarly, everytime Literature/NancyDrew went anywhere on vacation, a mystery inevitably arose.

* Many {{Medical Drama}}s will have physicians who are off-duty/outside work help out in medical emergencies, especially if there are no other medical professionals present. ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'', ''Series/RoyalPains'', and ''Series/GreysAnatomy'' provide examples of this.