Moments where a character has to hide the warning signs of abuse at the hands of parents/guardians and mean teachers from authority figures and friends in Western Animation.
- On American Dragon: Jake Long, Rose claimed to have sprained her ankle at the family reunion she had supposedly been at that weekend. In reality, she was injured while fighting Jake in her alter ego as Huntsgirl. (You'd think Jake would have noticed the coincidence...)
- In Aqua Teen Hunger Force episode "The", Meatwad's eyes become horribly obscured as a result of Shake using burned styrofoam and having raw chicken scattered around the house. After Frylock notes the damage his eyes have, Meatwad tries to casually claims he fell down the stairs, except Frylock immediately points out the house doesn't have stairs.
- In another episode, where the Aqua Teens and Carl are portrayed as secret agents working for opposing sides, Carl, when speaking to Meatwad, tries to claim the blood on his pants, which is the end result of a mission he was on, is from cutting himself shaving.
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012): In the episode "I Think His Name is Baxter Stockman", the Turtles return home after being beaten up by Baxter Stockman's upgraded Powered Armor. Splinter catches them in the act and asks about their injuries, and after a few minutes of them stammering and trying to come up with an excuse, Mikey claims they were hit by a bus. Splinter doesn't buy it for a second.
- Family Guy:
- In the episode "Wasted Talent," Stewie tries to watch television, but is distracted by the poor piano playing of one of Lois's students. When Lois leaves the room briefly, Stewie sweeps in and beats up the student. When Lois returns and sees all of the injuries of the piano student, he tells her, at Stewie's prompting, that "I fell?"
- Then there's the episode where Stewie beats up Brian twice for not paying him some betting money on time. Later Brian comes limping into the living room, covered in bandages, and someone asks him what happened. Stewie makes a threatening gesture and Brian hastily replies that he "fell down the stairs'', prompting Stewie to say "Ooh, you should be more careful!"
- Yet another Stewie example — he, Chris, and Brian are in a car, and Chris was claiming not to be responsible for getting caught with some alcohol at school (it really was his friends). Stewie orders the car pulled over. Cut to him relentlessly spanking a sobbing Chris and demanding, "What do you say if your teachers ask about your bruises?" "I got hit with a baaase-baaall."
- In "Screams of Silence: The Story Of Brenda Q," Brenda says her finger is bandaged up because "My (her) finger fell downstairs." In reality, it's clear that her Domestic Abuser, Jeff, broke it.
- In Robot Chicken, one comedic short involves a couple at a family abuse help-clinic. The man asks what they could do about their situation, and the clinic official asks: "Well, have you tried Nerf doors?" The couple looks at each other for a moment and the man replies: "What about stairs; we're going to need some Nerf stairs too," followed by a nod from the woman.
- American Dad! turns this one on its head with thorough use of Not What It Looks Like. A stressed Roger gives Francine a black eye, which she tells the neighbors came from running into a door. Later on, she trips over the mop and bruises the other eye on a door for real, explaining it by innocently remarking "It was my fault for leaving the mop out". Naturally, they assume Stan is beating Francine and call the cops on him. None of this is helped by the fact that Stan, under house arrest, is lazing about in a bathrobe and asking questions like "How did you get hurt?" (in complete honesty), making him look like the stereotypical wife-beating scumbag.
- The Simpsons:
- In one episode Snake comes into Dr. Nick's surgery with a bleeding stomach. His reasoning: "I like, fell onto a bullet, and it like, drove itself into my gut..." Not missing a beat, the receptionist casually ticks off "liquor store robbery" on her clipboard. Dr. Nick tells him to save the stories for the courts and leads him back to the office.
- In another episode, Homer is seen to be choking Bart on TV... with Doctor Hibbert watching. Hibbert remarks something like "So that's how he got all those bruises on his trachea! Tight bowtie, my ass..."
- In "Eternal Moonshine of the Simpson Mind", Marge says her black eye is due to walking into a door. Wiggum voices his skepticism and then walks into a door himself.
- In "I'Doh!-bot" Homer can't build a good robot for Bart to compete in Robot Rumble so he does the fighting. When Lisa asks about his injuries, he explains they are various bug bites and wounds.
- When Homer hires the Mafia to help Marge's pretzel business, she delivers some to Skinner who answers his door with a bandaged wrist. She asks what happens and a hidden goon behind him whispers "*mumble mumble* boating accident". Skinner repeats robotically "I believe it was a boaking [sic] accident."
- King of the Hill:
- The first episode had the subversion. Bobby and Peggy end up with bruises thanks to the non-athletic Bobby throwing around a baseball. A social worker assumes that Hank is physically abusive and tries to get Bobby taken away. However, his supervisor calls him out on the fact that he was jumping to conclusions and didn't bother doing any of the actual investigative work involved in abuse cases, which gets the social worker Reassigned to Antarctica.
- In "Leanne's Saga" Bill begins dating Luanne's mother. When she falls off the wagon, she resorts to her abusive ways and Bill takes the brunt, leading to him showing up in the alley with a black eye. When asked about it, he explains:Bill: That's an interesting story. You know what? I was walking... I was walking. And I walked into a door.
Dale: [suspiciously] Wait a minute. How was that interesting?
- In an episode of SpongeBob SquarePants, SpongeBob walks into the Krusty Krab with a black eye and the others question how he got it. In response, he makes up a bunch of ridiculous stories about fighting this guy from his dream. Eventually, he is forced to tell the truth when the guy does show up. The truth: he slipped on a tube of toothpaste and he hit himself in the eye with a wrench.
- Metalocalypse:Dr. Rockzo the Rock n' Roll Clown (he does cocaine): What's that, judge? Why's my nose bleedin'? Well, you see, uh... I fell dooowwwwwn.
- Subverted in a Mr. Peabody and Sherman short. When Mr. Peabody asks Sherman where he got a black eye, he says he ran into a door. Sherman really meant Eddie Door from across the street.
- Bob's Burgers: In "Purple Rain-Union", The kids gang up on their babysitter Jen, tickling her, but she has issues with tickling and reflexively punches Tina, giving her a black eye. To save her job, Louise suggests everyone gets black eyes, so they all punch each other, later giving no explanation of how it happened.
- Archer Dreamland has this exchange:Kreiger: [explaining his black eye] I... walked into a door? Repeatedly?
Charlotte: Oh yeah... my mother used to do that. - In South Park, after being raped by President Garrison, Paul Ryan states to the press that his black eye came from falling on a doorknob and the semen on his face is just "doorknob cum".
- In My Adventures with Superman, Clark states this verbatim to Lois when he shows up bloodied and bruised. Given that she had recently put together that he's Superman and just earlier, Superman had raced off on a potentially dangerous mission, she's not buying it.
