Basic Trope: Bizarrely large tentacles seize a female character's body, for erotic effect.
- Straight: While Alice is at the beach clad in a bikini, large squid-like tentacles emerge from the water and hoist her into the air, and then grab her suggestively.
- Exaggerated:
- The tentacles also strip Alice's bikini off in front of the beach crowd, as onlookers jeer, snap photos, and shoot videos.
- A legion of tentacles hoist every buxom, bikini-clad woman at the beach into the air and strips them simultaneously, setting off a massive wave of Naked Freak-Outs, Wolf Whistles, camera flashes, and men staring dumbstruck in awe.
- Due to a genetic quirk of Alice's pheromones, tentacle incidents occur every single time that Alice gets close to a large body of water. For some mysterious reason, her male friends always want to accompany her on her lake cabin trips.
- Downplayed: A normal-sized squid grabs, and then quickly releases Alice's ankle as she wades in the shallow water, with no salacious intent.
- Justified:
- Alice found a smaller squid earlier and punted it into the sea, on account of it being slimy. The squid's father shows up.
- Alice is testing an experimental, high-powered squid bait, and accidentally gets some of it on herself.
- Alice has a fetish for getting grabbed by tentacles, and intentionally frequents beaches with giant squid sightings.
- Inverted:
- Gender-Inverted: The tentacles hoist Bob into the air, while grabbing him suggestively.
- Subverted:
- Alice coated herself earlier in especially oily sunblock, and is too slippery for the tentacles to grab.
- Alice goes inside the shower/locker area, and closes the door.
- Double Subverted:
- The tentacles grab Alice by her swimsuit, causing some discomfort.
- The tentacles emerge from the shower plumbing.
- Parodied: The tentacles strike during a wet T-shirt contest, where all of the contestants are either already drenched, topless, or in exhibitionistic mental states anyway. No one minds the tentacles' presence, and some of the contestants even get grabbed voluntarily as they assume it's part of the show.
- Zig-Zagged: Some of the beach tentacles are benevolent, giving out free bottles of sunscreen and keeping swimmers safe. Others are of the lewd variety. It's a crapshoot.
- Averted: Alice doesn't go to the beach.
- Enforced:A: "We need Fanservice, but don't want Alice to look like a slut. Let's have giant tentacles grab her at the beach!"B: "Uh, boss. In this particular medium, I think no one cares if Alice looks like a slut."A: "Not important. We're still going with my way."
- Lampshaded: "Does anyone else understand exactly what the squid gains, by grabbing Alice? Wait, never mind, it just tore off her top. Those are nice!"
- Invoked: Alice humiliated Bob at their last outing, so Bob secretly coats Alice's swimsuit in experimental, high-powered squid bait.
- Exploited:
- The beach charges men admission to come sit at their newly titled "Tentacle Beach," but let women in for free. Claire and Rosita think it's a little odd that the men are all seated way back from the water, as they feel a sharp tug on their bikinis.
- Seafood chefs follow Alice from beach to beach, as the squids that grab her are occasionally rare delicacies that are hard to find anywhere else.
- Defied: The tentacles reach ominously towards Alice, until she sprays them with squid repellent, and they quickly retract back beneath the water.
- Discussed: "This is crazy, someone needs to help her!" KA-CHK, KA-CHK
- Conversed: "So, it's, uh. The tentacle thing, now." "Seeing this in a mainstream TV show feels weird."
- Implied: At the office, one of Alice's co-workers notices a row of odd, circular red marks on her arm. When he asks her about it, Alice says she doesn't really want to get into it, but she now makes a habit of ordering squid from every seafood restaurant.
- Deconstructed: A marine biologist decries the incident as a hoax, because this simply isn't a thing that squids do.
- Reconstructed: Alice visits the marine biologist's office to tell her story. The marine biologist says that doesn't really sound like squid behavior, but Alice maintains that videos were taken, and shows the biologist her phone. The biologist squints to see the image, and then his eyes bug out. He asks Alice if she can send him the videos, for research purposes.
- Played for Laughs: Alice the sea-park employee has a routine where she scuba-dives into the giant squid's tank to feed it, while Bob the marine biologist tells the audience, watching at the side of the tank, all about the squid's various behaviors. As the show starts, the giant squid seems more playful than usual, touching and caressing Alice with its tentacles. It suddenly rips off Alice's bikini top and uses its tentacles to press her topless back up against the glass of the tank facing the audience, pinning her there as the audience gasps in concern. Bob, facing away from the tank and oblivious, tells the audience not to worry, and that Alice and the squid are old friends. He goes on to say that the squid really enjoys grabbing small, knob-like protrusions and twisting them, as the squid's tentacles appear to paw Alice's front and then sharply twist, while Alice moans into her scuba mask. Bob continues, saying that the squid also enjoys using its tentacles to explore narrow crevices or crannies, as the audience sees Alice's bikini bottoms wiggle suggestively while Alice moans in arousal. Finally, Bob describes the squid's enormous suckers, and how if they're really lucky, the squid will press its big, firm suckers right up against the glass. Bob turns around, just in time to see the squid spin Alice around and pin her up against the side of the tank again, flattening her topless front against the glass; our viewpoint is Nippled and Dimed, as two audience members holding up their phones for photos conveniently censor Alice's breasts. Bob's jaw drops, Alice jiggles in place against the glass, and the audience cheers.
- Played for Drama:
- The squid is the reincarnation of Alice's husband who passed away. The two of them have to work through and sort out how to maintain their relationship.
- The squid sees a therapist, and the plot explores why the squid objectifies women.
Get away from the water by going back to Naughty Tentacles! (Or stay put, if you're into it. We don't judge.)
