Deadly Dodging in Live-Action TV series.
- 1000 Ways to Die: In "Cat Fight On A Hot Tin Hood", two women named Amy and Brenda get into a fight over a parking space. When Amy sidesteps one of Brenda's attacks, Brenda falls on the hood of a parked car and bleeds to death from being impaled by the hood ornament.
- In one episode of The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr., the protagonist is about to be shot by four bandits who form a perfect cross around him. He decides to duck at the last moment and the bandits kill each other simultaneously.
- Bargearse (a Gag Dub of Australian cop show Bluey (1976)). Bargearse aggravates a man by calling him a "polepuncher". When the man goes to hit him, Bargearse ducks out of the way and the man hits the telephone pole behind him instead. "Ha-ha! Polepuncher!"
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
- In "Robot You Jane", Buffy defeats Moloch the Corruptor by tricking him into punching an electrical junction box, frying him.
- In "Homecoming", Buffy maneuvers the two German assassins into shooting each other.
- The Defenders: There is a wall covered in a magical incantation that only an Iron Fist can break through. Elektra tries to convince Danny Rand to break it down, but when he refuses she goads him into using the Fist on her, maneuvers until she's standing in front of the wall and then uses this trope to get him to knock it down.
- Doctor Who:
- "The Age of Steel": Mickey defeats a Cyberman by getting it to punch him, then quickly ducking so it hits the transmitter controls behind him.
- Probably the single most epic version of this comes from "The Day of the Doctor", when all thirteen of the Doctor's incarnations teleport Gallifrey from the Time War and into a Pocket Dimension, causing the Dalek fleet bombarding the planet to wipe themselves out instead.
- "The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos": Graham and Ryan get cornered by two groups of sniper bots, so they drop to the floor and let them shoot each other.
- In "Eve of the Daleks", Nick is caught in a corridor by a couple of Daleks and escapes by ducking so they exterminate each other. Unfortunately they're in a "Groundhog Day" Loop, so the Daleks learn from their mistake and only send one Dalek after him the next time.Nick: It was a lot of strategic analysis, weapons assessment and battle-ready thinking.
The Doctor: Did you duck?
Nick: [shamefaced] Yeah.
The Doctor: Nice!
- Double Subversion in an episode of Farscape. Crichton tries to trick a creature into jumping through a hole blown in the hull that's sealed with an improvised hatch and an electromagnetic field. However, after he dodges it, it misses the hatch and clings to the wall instead. It takes a few more tries and several seconds of frantically dodging to work.
- Done unintentionally in Friends, where Ross accidentally punches a lamppost after being goaded by Joey to hit him. Joey apologizes and states that he merely dodged reflexively, even taking a swing at Ross to demonstrate (who doesn't dodge). At the end of the episode Joey, again trying to demonstrate how people dodge reflexively, throws a punch at Chandler, who dodges... meaning Joey hits Ross again.
- In the Grimm episode "Leave It to the Beavers", Nick gets a reaper to behead another like this.
- The Man from U.N.C.L.E.:
- In the second season episode "The Virtue Affair", Napoleon Solo escapes from a holding cell and is running through the corridors of the Big Bad's lair. Confronted by two Mooks approaching from opposite sides of the corridor, Solo dodges just in time for the mooks to gun each other down.
- Played with in the third season episode "The Five Daughters Affair, Part II". Solo and Kuryakin, creeping down a corridor of a THRUSH complex, are menaced by one THRUSH mook ahead of them and two behind them. The mook in front of them sprints towards them, then leaps at Solo as if to tackle him. Solo quickly hits the floor, and the leaping mook takes out the two mooks following the heroes.
- The Midsomer Murders episode "Written in Blood" has this happen. Tip for murderers: don't rush madly towards people standing in front of upstairs windows.
- Since Billy was not a trained martial artist like the rest of the Rangers, this was his signature move in early episodes of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers — so much so that it was his unmorphed fighting shot in the season 1 opening credits. Later he Took a Level in Badass, fighting as well as the others (and wearing sleeveless shirts to show off his toned arms), and the credits were changed accordingly.
- In an episode of Murder Most Horrid, the fiancée of a murder victim announces that she no longer wishes to live and asks his killers to all shoot her in the head at the end of a song. She takes a bow.
- The Series X finale of Red Dwarf, "The Beginning", has this trope invoked in the climactic showdown. Rimmer, piloting the Blue Midget, possesses a raygun that makes walls temporarily intangible, while Simulant ships—who have him vastly outgunned—are on his 12, 3, 6, and 9, completely surrounding him . Rimmer, perhaps reading his enemies, perhaps just being Rimmer, decides to surrender. Each ship immediately fires heat-seeking torpedoes at the Midget. Naturally, deadly dodging occurs, as Rimmer shoots the front, back and sides of the Blue Midget's bulkhead with the aforementioned "wibbly gun", causing the torpedoes to pass through the Blue Midget and start homing on the Simulant ships on the opposing sides. They quickly begin to parrot Rimmer's surrender speech back at him before blowing up.
- The Australian series Rush has a scene where Sergeant McKeller is cornered by two criminals, one of whom tries to shoot him, only for McKeller to dodge, causing him to hit his own partner, who made no attempt to get out of the line of fire. This scene was parodied in the Gag Dub sketch The Olden Days in The Late Show, when Sergeant Olden tells them this is exactly what he's about to do, only for them to dismiss it because "That only happens in old ABC drama programs!"
- In The Sarah Jane Adventures episode "The Vault of Secrets", Clyde gets two robots to fire at him, and jumps out at the last second, causing them to shoot each other.
- Superman:
- The first season of The Adventures of Superman depicted Superman doling out some super-haymakers against Metropolis's resident hoodlums. But as the series grew Lighter and Softer over time, the Man of Steel shifted his strategy to stepping out of the way (or even just standing still) while the crooks dutifully bumped into the door, or each other's heads.
- In Smallville, this is how young Clark frequently winds up accidentally disposing of villains, allowing the writers to have the threat dealt with without Clark ever breaking Thou Shalt Not Kill. Take him on, and you will find yourself stuck like a cocktail weenie on a pointy object that should rightfully only bruise you.
- In one episode of Supergirl, Brainy defeats several members of the Children of Liberty by doing just this.Brainy: ... I'll be required to beat you up. With physics.
- In the Supernatural episode "All Hell Breaks Loose, Part One", Sam ducks out of the way as Jake punches, resulting in Jake's fist going through a wooden trough and getting stuck.
- Ultra Galaxy Mega Monster Battle: During an episode where Gomora fights against Telesdon, Red King and Neronga (summoned by Bullton), Gomora manage to trick Telesdon to unleash its fireballs at his direction, and then dodge aside causing the fireballs to hit Neronga and Bullton instead.
