History Main / PocketDial

* An episode of ''Series/{{Castle}}'' has him go on a date with a woman trying to get information from her, who starts to get a little frisky with him, and accidentally calls Beckett on his phone. She hears things that make her think Castle is in trouble and rushes over to his place, where she finds him with his date in her underwear on top of him.

* Inverted in an episode of ''Series/BabylonFive'' while Sheridan is talking to a terrorist with his link active in his back pocket so the crew can listen in accidentally shuts it off when he sits down, and alerts the terrorist that he's been broadcasting their conversation.

* ''Series/{{Psych}}''. Shawn's father learned that Shawn is considering confessing his feelings to [[{{UST}} to Juliet]] when Shawn butt dialed his father in a Red Robin bathroom.

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* ''Film/IWantYouBack'': Noah accidentally butt-dials his ex-girlfriend while at a club.

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* In the book ''The Nitpicker's Guide for Next Generation Trekkers'' (1991) about ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', the author makes note of Commander Riker's habit of sitting on the touchscreen control panels, which means that either Riker is randomly pushing buttons with his butt or they have a special "Riker's ass" sensor which lets them know not to activate anything. However, almost all touchscreens from 2014 onwards (let alone in the 24th century) have capacitive sensors, meaning that you have to touch with a finger or a specially engineered pen or glove; just pressure isn't enough.

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* In 2019, UsefulNotes/RudyGiuliani accidentally dialed a journalist and [[https://www.rawstory.com/2019/10/the-problem-is-we-need-some-money-rudy-giuliani-exposed-his-desperation-by-accidentally-butt-dialing-a-reporter/ left a voicemail about his firm's efforts to raise "a few hundred thousand" dollars]].

* This is [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eyz-sL4m5Fw featured]] in one of Advertising/{{GEICO}}'s "It's what you do" ads. A man is about to propose marriage to his girlfriend when suddenly the girlfriend's cell starts ringing. She answers it, but it's her brother Todd butt-dialing her, resulting in her and the boyfriend hearing cheering and screams from a baseball game. Then...

* UsefulNotes/RudyGiuliani recently accidentally dialed a journalist and [[https://www.rawstory.com/2019/10/the-problem-is-we-need-some-money-rudy-giuliani-exposed-his-desperation-by-accidentally-butt-dialing-a-reporter/ left a voicemail about his firm's efforts to raise "a few hundred thousand" dollars]]. And this was his second accidental voicemail in less than a month.

People with names beginning with A are more likely to have it happen, as they're at the top of their friends' or family's call list. Nowadays, a lot of phone manufacturers are [[TropeBreaker designing phones to avert this]][[note]]Most phones have a "lock phone" feature that will disable key input unless a specific, deliberate input is made to unlock the phone, and furthermore most phones on the market today are touchscreen-focused smartphones that, due to using capacitive touchscreens that require contact with a living human's skin to register input, are extremely unlikely to make accidental input[[/note]], though it does still happen from time to time.

People with names beginning with A are more likely to have it happen, as they're at the top of their friends' or family's call list. Nowadays, a lot of phone manufacturers are [[TropeBreaker designing phones to avert this]], though it does still happen from time to time.

There's ways to prevent this and as such it's started to become a DiscreditedTrope. Many physical-keypad phones have a "lock phone" feature, which in addition to protecting the user's data (if a password/passcode is set) also protects against accidental keypresses, including ones that lead to calling somebody. In addition, phones with physical buttons have fallen by the wayside in favor of touchscreen-focused smartphones that respond mainly to human skin touch rather than just any sort of contact with the screen (and even if the phone's screen is facing inward in the user's pocket, the fabric will be too thick to trigger any input), and lock by default when not in use.

* Ben pocket-dials Ron on ''Series/ParksAndRecreation'' while Leslie is making out with him with role-playing as elected officials. They are colleagues and not allowed to date because Ben is Leslie's superior, but they are in a SecretRelationship. Leslie's boss Ron Swanson later plays back the recording for an embarrassed Leslie.

** When Terry tells the squad not to call him over the Christmas holiday, he refers to last year, in which Scully called him FIFTY times.

* Ben pocket-dials Ron on ''Series/ParksAndRecreation'' while Leslie is making out with him. They are colleagues and not allowed to date, but they are in a SecretRelationship. Leslie's boss Ron Swanson later plays back the recording for an embarrassed Leslie.

Please have links for real life stuff.