History Main / EmbarrassingCoverUp

* In IDW's ''[[ComicBook/GIJoeIDW G.I. Joe]]'' series, Kwinn and Lighthorse are [[BodybagTrick smuggling Snake-Eyes across a border in a coffin inside a hearse]]. Lighthorse looks nervous and the border guards ask him what is wrong. Lighthorse responds with the phrase that Kwinn taught him the local language. This translates as "I'm a little girl. I'm afraid of ghosts". The border guards laugh and let them through. Lighthorse, who has no idea what he has just said, wonders what they found so funny.

* Happened ''accidentally'' to ComicBook/SpiderMan, according to the issue in [[ComicBook/TheAmazingSpiderManJMichaelStraczynski J. Michael Straczynski's run]] where Peter revealed his secret to Aunt May. She'd had a feeling that he was hiding ''something'', and noticed his [[MistakenForGay awkwardness around girls]]... During this period May also used this to help Peter get past the TSA agents at the airport by implying that his webshooters were gynecological equipment. She started explaining how they worked and the agents couldn't pack them back up fast enough.

* Happened ''accidentally'' to Franchise/SpiderMan, according to the issue in [[ComicBook/TheAmazingSpiderManJMichaelStraczynski J. Michael Straczynski's run]] where Peter revealed his secret to Aunt May. She'd had a feeling that he was hiding ''something'', and noticed his [[MistakenForGay awkwardness around girls]]... During this period May also used this to help Peter get past the TSA agents at the airport by implying that his webshooters were gynecological equipment. She started explaining how they worked and the agents couldn't pack them back up fast enough.

* ''Manga/SpyXFamily'': When Loid is contacted by his handlers during a family outing to help them foil a terrorist plot, the excuse he uses to get away from his wife and daughter is that he's suffering from digestive issues. While he's normally enough of a ConsummateProfessional not to be bothered, he ''is'' a bit embarrassed when his daughter (who can [[{{Telepathy}} read his mind and knows what he's really doing]]) is quite vocal about backing him up so that her mother won't get suspicious:

* In ''Webcomic/TheAdventuresOfShanShan'' [[http://shanshan.upperrealms.com/view.php?pageid=012&chapterid=1 Shan Shan embarrasses himself with attempts to explain why he eats alone.]]

* In ''Webcomic/QuestionableContent'', when Hanners is helping Marigold with a budget because being a VirtualYouTuber is making more money than she expected or is comfortable with, Dora asks what the job is and Mar blurts out "NUDES. I'M SELLING NUDES." Dora has zero problem with this, but Marigold is horribly embarassed.
-->'''Hannerlore''': Why on ''earth''--\\
'''Marigold''': I need to keep my identity a secret!\\
'''Hannerlore''': And ''that's'' the first thing that came to mind?\\
'''Marigold''': My brain is trash and I live on the internet!

* ''Series/MASH'': Because a majority of the main characters are doctors/surgeons/nurses, they can come up with a medical excuse on the fly that can either get someone a favor or cover up something else. In the episode where Hawkeye does foot inspections, Frank spends the entire episode trying to avoid his. When Hawkeye and BJ finally catch him, it's revealed that, while drunk, he and Margaret painted their toenails. Hawkeye agrees to cover this up, but he does so by stating that Frank has a rare, disgusting condition that left him with abnormally colored toenails. He can't lie on a military report, after all!

* Exploited in ''Manga/DeathNote'', when Light plants porn in his room for the investigation team to find, to make it look as if that's what he's trying to hide. He's not actually embarrassed about it, but his Dad sure finds it awkward.

* In ''The Most Incredible Work of Literature in the Entire Cosmos'' (a parody of ''[[Literature/{{Twilight}} Breaking Dawn]]''), three of Frig's friends are standing guard outside her house to make sure an alien leader doesn't find her. When he does show up and asks why they're there, the girls claim they're prostitutes who were hired to go to the house.

[[folder: Video Games]]

-->'''Anya:''' Papa takes a real long time to take a crap, so we should go.
-->'''Loid:''' ''(thinking)'' I appreciate her backing my play, but... uh...

-->'''The Doctor: ''' Not too quickly. Her ankle's going.
-->'''Jackie (muttering): ''' [[LiteralAssKicking I'll show you where my ankle's going]].

-->'''Zari''': Were you...?
-->'''Rory''': Yes. I was watching porn.
-->'''Zari''': On a typewriter?

-->'''Reese''': No lady, I don't want your drugs!

--->'''Homer:''' Just remember, if your mother asks, I took you to a wine tasting.
--->'''Lisa:''' That's a terrible thing for a father to do!
--->'''Homer:''' [[BumblingDad That's why she'll believe it]].

An Embarrassing Cover-Up is great not only because it can cause the person questioning them to lose interest, but also because they are a good, easy-to-explain cover-up for suspicious behavior. Bob might be suspicious if Alice claims she snuck off in the middle of the night without telling anyone to get ice cream. If she claims she did so to replenish her tampon supply or simply go on ADateWithRosiePalms, on the other hand, there's at least a 9 in 10 chance that Bob will leave it at that.

* In the ''Series/TheAlmightyJohnsons'' episode "Bergerbar", Axl is flunking out of school because of his poor attendance. Axl's brother Anders tells the teacher that their other brother Mike is a transman (He's not.) and Axl has been missing school to support Mike through the transition. Being a major {{Jerkass}}, Anders doesn't tell Mike and Axl about his excuse before their meeting with Axl's teacher about the attendance issue.

--->'''Homer:''' That's why she'll believe it.

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Sanford Governor Mark Sanford of South Carolina]] went missing for a few days, claiming when he returned that he had been "Hiking the Appalachian Trail." Little did he realize (because that's not what he was really doing) that this just happened to be during [[NakedPeopleAreFunny National Nude Hiking Day.]] News outlets had a field day with that one, even before the real reason for his disappearance was revealed roughly a day later -- [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Sanford_disappearance_and_extramarital_affair a trip to Buenos Aries where he had been conducting an extramarital affair.]] Suddenly [[IsThatWhatTheyreCallingItNow a new euphemism]] was born.

->'''Ned:''' Uh... I'm looking at... porn.

* The page quote comes from ''Film/SpiderManHomecoming'', when Ned Leeds needs to be Peter's "[[VoiceWithAnInternetConnection guy in the chair]]", he uses the school's computer lab. When a teacher catches him and asks what he's doing in the lab during the homecoming dance, Ned provides the first reason that comes to mind for a single guy to be on a computer.

** In "Grade School Confidential," Principal Skinner and Bart's teacher Edna Krapabbel have a SecretRelationship which is discovered, causing them to be fired by Superintendent Chalmers. When it's revealed that the problem was not so much the relationship itself as [[GossipEvolution the rumor]] that they were having SexAtWork, Skinner publicly announces that he's, in fact, a virgin, causing Chalmers and the rest of the town to back away in embarrassment on the supposition that [[VirginShaming no one would lie about being a virgin at the age of 44]]. The ending leaves it ambiguous [[AmbiguousSituation whether he told the truth or not]].

* ''Series/TheITCrowd'': Roy grows obsessed with his girlfriend's bizarre story about her parents' deaths, and when she catches him researching the matter on his laptop late at night, he ''covers'' by quickly claiming that he was masturbating.

'''Ned:''' Uh...I'm looking at...porn.

* ''WebAnimation/HunterTheParenting'': During a police interrogation, Big D is asked why Kitten's house has a torture dungeon in his basement, complete with live camera feed. Since he can't say it's to interrogate captured vampires from a safe distance, Big D feigns disgust and refuses to answer at first. He waits for the cop to insist, and 'reluctantly' admits that it's Marckus's sex dungeon.