The chariot itself isn't in much better shape.
Painter: This is high-grade waterproof paint!
Donald: Phooie! The first rain will wash it right off!.
Donald: Phooie! The first rain will wash it right off!.
— Donald Duck newspaper comic story YD 43-02-23.
In fiction, rain or other deluges of water often have the effect of washing away dried paint very easily, usually leaving no trace at all.
In real life, many historical and modern types of paint, like oil, acrylic, and latex, don't simply "dry" but cure, undergoing permanent chemical changes when exposed to air. Afterward, they cannot be removed by water alone and have to be stripped with solvents, heat, and/or aggressive scraping and sanding. Indeed, paint, varnish, and other coatings are often applied to protect things from rain, such as outdoor furniture. Water can have an effect on recently applied or water-soluble paint, especially if it has not yet dried, or if the paint has been applied to the wrong kind of surface (e.g., fur), but even then, it doesn't just rinse off the moment the water hits it.
Some kinds of dried paint can be removed by scrubbing with water and sometimes soap, especially (of course) watercolors and paints for children such as poster paint, although this is not always successful and tends to leave residue, and in any case still isn't as quick and easy as it tends to appear in fiction.
This trope sometimes goes with When It Rains, It Pours, to illustrate a massive rainstorm. It can be exaggerated if rain washes away something that would be impossible to remove by any means, such as glaze on fired ceramics, or markings on an animal's skin. It can also apply to other substances which would normally be difficult or time-consuming to remove, such as make-up or nail polish. However, if something could easily be removed by water, such as chalk, or a message written in sand, it's not an example.
Compare the related trope Mono no Aware, about appreciating non-permanent beauty.
Examples:
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Advertising
- Cartoons on Children's Rights: This entry
concerning discrimination has this blue-skinned boy try to blend in a green-skinned class but to no avail until he decides to paint himself green. Then comes graduation day, when rain strikes, washing the paint off everyone, including the boy, and the teacher (who is also blue in the first place).
Anime & Manga
- Digimon Tamers: In "Not as Seen on TV", Takato and Jian/Henry use paint to camouflage Growmon/Growlmon and hide him among trees and bushes while he's stuck in his current form. Then the rain comes along and washes it off with no problem (fortunately, he reverts to Guilmon right as the rain stops).
Comic Books
- All-Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder: In Issue #9, Batman and Robin paint themselves yellow before meeting up with Hal Jordan. After Robin unleashes a karate chop to Hal's throat and Batman has to perform an emergency tracheotomy on him to keep him from dying, the two protagonists head out into the rain, and the yellow paint soon starts to wash off of their clothes. Some yellow paint remains on Robin's cape, however, explaining why he has it in the present day.
- Agent 327: The plot of "Dossier Nachtwacht" is kicked off when a kid visiting the museum sprays water over Rembrand's famous painting The Night Watch with a squirt gun, and the paint immediately comes off, tipping off the authorities that the real painting has been stolen and replaced with a forgery. In this case it's justified as the forgery was made with cheap water-based paint.
- Asterix: In Asterix and the Banquet, Asterix and Obelix become the victims of a shady used chariots dealer who sells them a supposedly spanking-new chariot with a strong black stallion. However, soon afterward, it starts raining, revealing the black stallion to actually be a sickly, white horse that was painted black to make it look young and healthy.
- Disney Ducks Comic Universe:
- In one story, Donald is ordered by his uncle Scrooge to paint a house. Naturally, what can go wrong, does, and the setbacks cause Donald to run out of paint before the job is done so he has to get more. He considers most paints to be too expensive, so he goes for a cheaper option, but misses a warning label on the can that clearly states this cheap paint is not water-resistant. He and Scrooge find out the hard way when it starts raining and the new paint washes off instantly.
- The trope is discussed in a newspaper comic; Donald is seen arguing with a painter who has just finished painting Donald's house, but Donald refuses to believe the painter used high-grade paint as agreed, and claims a little rain will wash it all off. The trope is then averted in the final panel, which shows Donald, covered from head to toe in the paint (obviously done by the offended painter), sitting in the bathtub and trying in vain to wash the paint off.
Jokes
- Justified in a joke about a builder who thins paint with water before painting a church spire, and the paint is washed off by rain. The builder repaints the spire, thinning the paint as before. He is struck by lightning, and hears a voice from the heavens: "Repaint, repaint, and thin no more."
Fan Works
- Vow of Nudity: In The Syndicate's Streets, when Haara gets stranded naked in the middle of a bustling city, she visits a festival and gets Body Paint applied to mimic clothing. This works for a while, until a sudden rainstorm washes the paint off and she needs to come up with another idea.
Films — Live-Action
- Blues Brothers 2000: The band paints the Bluesmobile all black in order to disguise its distinctive appearance as an old police cruiser in order to sneak into the bluegrass festival. However, during the festival, a heavy rainstorm hits while they're performing (implied to have been summoned by their music as they performed "Ghost Riders In The Sky"), which promptly washes the new paint job off and reveals its original appearance.
- The Cannonball Run: The opening of the second film features a white Lamborghini Countach that's being pursued by the highway patrol. It pulls in to a construction site, where the workers spray water on the car, washing off the white coating to reveal the car's red paint underneath.
- The Jackal realises he's being followed by a gang of hijackers, so parks his car in a multilevel garage with an autowash that he uses to remove a layer of paint covering the car. One hijacker isn't fooled because he sees the paint residue around the floor drain, but gets killed by a poison that the Jackal sprayed on the door latch afterwards.
- Lord of War. Arms Dealer Yuri Orlov woos supermodel Ava Fontaine by convincing her she's a high-flying businessman, including his own private jet with his name on the side. As the (rented) jet takes off, the hastily-painted ORLOV on the side gets smeared by the slipstream.
Literature
- Ant And Bee And The Rainbow: Ant and Bee paint a rainbow on an old rubber tyre, and on wooden swings, and wooden bats. They wash paint off themselves just after they accidentally fall in their pots of paint, but later, long after the paint on their rainbow, swings, and bats has dried, it rains overnight, and they find all the paint has been washed away the following morning.
- The Berenstain Bears Big Chapter Books: Variant in the climax of The Berenstain Bears and the Galloping Ghost, when the titular ghost — "a ghostly, glowing bear riding a ghostly, glowing horse" — shows up to scare everyone away from Miss Mamie's Riding Academy, first just running by and then returning when he sees the cubs (who'd started to leave) have come back. This second appearance takes place during the rain, which ultimately exposes the Galloping Ghost as a "Scooby-Doo" Hoax — a bear in a sheet, dipped in unidentified chemicals (not specifically identified as phosphorescent paint, but it can be assumed to be such) to make it glow — when he falls off into a thornbush mid-jump and gets caught. His horse was painted with the same chemicals to make it glow (and which made it seem to turn almost invisible just before the jump); by the time it returns a minute or so later, said chemicals have been largely washed off by the rain.
- The Blue Jackal: The titular jackal falls into blue paint, decides that blue is a kingly colour, and declares himself king of the animals. In some versions of this tale, the paint is eventually washed off him by rain.
- In the Time/Life book series, Epic Of Flight, there was a volume on Private Military Contractors titled "Soldiers Of Fortune". One story covered during the Cold War concerned some arms smugglers who had to fly an aircraft into Africa to drop off an arms shipment and fly to another airfield there to refuel. The aircraft had been reported for arms smuggling before, so the pilots and crew hastily repainted the registration numbers on the fuselage and had fake papers for customs. The flight out from the fueling stop was delayed by rain, rain that promptly washed off the fake registration numbers, and the scheme was exposed.
- Zigzagged in Gumpa And The Paint Box from the Animal Shelf series. Gumpa paints red spots on himself to pretend he has measles. After a day of being fussed over and kept in bed, he gets bored and licks all the spots off himself fairly easily. Unfortunately, Little Mut has copied his idea, and spotted himself not with paint, but with red ink, which simply will not come off. The animals try various methods, including washing him in the Splashing Stream which had once removed one of the animal's markings, but this fails. In the end, they have to use expensive ink remover and do housework to earn money for it.
- James and the Giant Peach: The centipede has a gallon of purple paint poured over him by an angry cloudman, and the paint quickly dries very hard indeed, rendering the centipede totally immobile. While the party is wondering what to do about him, there is a massive cloudburst, and a deluge of rain washes all the paint off the centipede at once.
- Thomas & Friends: In The Sad Story of Henry, Henry believes that the rain will spoil his green paint with red stripes, so he takes refuge in a tunnel. When Henry refuses to move, the Fat Controller gives him the Radish Cure of building a wall in front of him to keep him there. Dirt and soot from the roof of the tunnel spoil his paint anyway.
Live-Action TV
- The Big Bang Theory: In "The Rothman Disintegration," Amy gives Penny an unwanted painting of them together. At the end, Amy reveals that they were originally painted nude and that clothes were added because she thought it would be "an unnecessary challenge to our heterosexuality."
Amy: But if you ever change your mind, all it would take is some warm, soapy water and a couple of sponges.
Penny: You're talking about the painting, right?
Amy: Sure.
Video Games
- Animal Crossing: Sometimes, if you talk to a villager on a rainy day, they'll mention that they passed by your house and noticed that the roof paint was washing off due to the rain. Sure enough, when you go back to your house, you'll notice that the color has washed off, requiring you to have it repainted by purchasing paint at Nook's store if you want to return it to the way it was before. Sometimes the villagers will comment that this is because you bought cheap paint, even though no other kind is available to the player.
- Portal 2: The mobility gels allow test subjects to bounce off surfaces, run faster across surfaces, or place portals where they couldn't before. All of them wash away with plain water, which the final boss bemoans not knowing until after they've been used extensively near the end of the single-player campaign.
- Super Mario Sunshine: Most of what Shadow Mario leaves around is goop and is justifiably easier to wash off as it's more gooey and messy than sticky or painted on. However, the M-insignia left behind on walls, and certain messes left on certain landmarks do take a more concerted effort to wash-off. That said, it's done entirely with just what amounts to a high-pressure water-pump. No need for a scrub brush or anything similar.
Visual Novels
- Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies: One of the cosmetics invented by Florent L'Belle is a temporary hair dye that washes out with water, allowing him to dye his hair a different color every day. A piece of evidence with white hair is found in a river near the crime scene; finding out that L'Belle's natural hair color is white is the key to linking him to the murder.
Western Animation
- Blue Eye Samurai: In "The Tale of the Ronin and the Bride", there's a in-universe puppet show performance about a Ronin on a quest for revenge against a clan whose symbol is a Phoenix. He falls ill, is nursed to health by a woman, and for a moment gives up his quest to start a new life with her. But then one day they get caught in the rain, which washes away the dye on her kimono and reveals the crest of the Phoenix underneath, proving she is blood-related to his sworn enemies.
- Camp Lazlo: In "Lumpus's Last Stand", Lumpus convinces everyone in Prickly Pines to stop wearing clothes and paint their bodies to look like they're wearing clothes, so that they won't have to wash their clothes anymore. However, his brilliant idea falls apart when it starts raining, washing all the paint off everyone's bodies.
- Casper the Friendly Ghost: In the short, "Spunky Skunky", a skunk rejected because of his smell jumps off a cliff, but falls into a white paint can and thinks that he's become a ghost. Casper plays along with it, so he can have a friend, until the skunk falls into water and the paint is washed off. When he realizes he's not a ghost but Casper is, he immediately runs off.
- Hey Arnold!:
- In Arnold's Halloween, Helga and most of the other fourth graders go trick-or-treating dressed as aliens and get mistaken for actual invaders due to Arnold and Gerald's radio prank on the boarding house getting picked up by a TV show. Helga tries to prove that they're in costume by wiping off her makeup, only for it not to come off because Harold got house paint instead of face paint. However, when Bob Pataki's attempt to drive off the "mothership" blows a hole in the city's water tower while they're all under it, the shower of water is all it takes for the paint to melt right off.
- Invoked in the movie; When pitching ideas on how to save the boarding house from being bulldozed, Oskar suggests painting the building in vanishing cream and making it invisible, only for Ernie to bring up the possibility of rain.
- Looney Tunes: This is usually the saving grace for Penelope, the cat in the Pepe le Pew segments, who is always getting a white stripe painted down her back so that Pepe mistakes her for a beautiful female skunk. Usually by the end of the cartoon, Penelope will have fallen into a rain barrel or a bucket of water, or it will rain, and the paint will wash out of her fur, often leaving her looking bedraggled and unkempt in the process. It is usually at this point that Pepe himself falls into a vat of paint that both makes him look like a typical male cat and temporarily masks his skunk odor, making him a heartthrob to Penelope and having Pepe now running from what he sees as an Abhorrent Admirer.
- Mr. Bean: The Animated Series: In "Dead Cat", "Scrapper" in question gets his black spots washed off when Mrs. Wicket gives him a bath. This was because Bean tried to replace Scapper from the accident earlier, where he stole an identical cat from the cat house owner and decides to give him a "makeover", like cutting its excess fur paints him black.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: In "The Cutie Map Part 2", Fluttershy spies on Starlight Glimmer and discovers that she has painted over her real cutie mark, meaning she lied about having given up her special talent to the others in her village when she crashes into a bucket of water. Fluttershy later tries to invoke this by throwing another bucket of water at her in front of the others, but Starlight dodges just in time, subverting it. Double subverted when a single drop of water reveals just enough for Party Favor to notice and scrub off the rest, revealing the truth to everypony. One wonders how she managed to avoid detection for so long.
- The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh: In "Stripes", Tigger loses his stripes when his friends make him take a bath, and he suffers from an identity crisis. Pooh and his friends decide to paint new stripes on Tigger so he'll feel more like his old self, which seems to work. However, it rains, and the rain washes the new stripes away.
- Oggy and the Cockroaches: In "Black or White"* Oggy recolors himself and his house with paint after a rain cloud washed all the colors away from the overflowing detergent. Then comes a rain cloud again, washing off the color, leaving all to waste. Oggy realizes that the paint he used was definitely watercolor.
- The Simpsons: In "Bart the Fink," when Rory B. Bellows jumps out of his boat, his makeup all washes off by the time he swims to the shore, revealing Krusty's whiteface-colored skin underneath, no scrubbing or makeup remover required.
- SpongeBob SquarePants:
- Double-subverted in the episode, "Wet Painters": Mr. Krabs asks SpongeBob and Patrick to paint the inside of his house, warning them that the paint he's handing them never comes off, and that if a single drop gets on one of his many decorations and antiques, he'll cut their butts off and hang them over his fireplace. Chaos ensues after the two accidentally get it all over Mr. Krabs' first dollar and are seemingly unable to get it off... only for him to reveal that it actually comes off very easily with saliva, and he was just messing with them. As Mr. Krabs laughs himself silly (SpongeBob and Patrick leaving unamused), he ends up spraying enough spittle that it causes all the paint the two just worked on to melt off.
Mr. Krabs: Ah, crud. I really got to learn to say it, not spray it.
- "Pranks a Lot" sees SpongeBob and Patrick getting covered in invisible paint and pretending to be ghosts. When scaring Mr. Krabs by threatening to burn a dollar, he responds by trying to douse the flame with a bucket of water, washing away the paint and exposing the pranksters.
- Double-subverted in the episode, "Wet Painters": Mr. Krabs asks SpongeBob and Patrick to paint the inside of his house, warning them that the paint he's handing them never comes off, and that if a single drop gets on one of his many decorations and antiques, he'll cut their butts off and hang them over his fireplace. Chaos ensues after the two accidentally get it all over Mr. Krabs' first dollar and are seemingly unable to get it off... only for him to reveal that it actually comes off very easily with saliva, and he was just messing with them. As Mr. Krabs laughs himself silly (SpongeBob and Patrick leaving unamused), he ends up spraying enough spittle that it causes all the paint the two just worked on to melt off.
- Tex Avery MGM Cartoons: In "Little 'Tinker", a skunk paints himself with red and white paint to look like a fox and woo a female fox. The two end up falling off a bridge and into the water, which washes away the skunk's paint. To his surprise, the lady fox's paint also washes off, revealing herself as a female skunk.
- Tom and Jerry:
- "The Missing Mouse": Near the end of the cartoon, Jerry inadvertently blows his disguise as the missing explosive white mouse by falling into a sink, washing the paint off his body.
- This is a plot point in the short "Polka-Dot Puss", where, after going through multiple remedies to cure a (faked) case of Tom catching the measles, Tom emerges from a cold shower to cool off from an 'extreme chill' remedy in the oven and spots himself in a nearby mirror to find that his spots have been washed off. This is followed by him spotting the red paint Jerry used to 'paint' measles on him. Upon applying red spots of paint to his forehead to examine in the mirror, (complete with a breif Metaphoric Metamorphosis into a Jackass) Tom discovers that he has been fooled and goes after Jerry in a fit of rage, only to be beset by Jerry actually getting real measles and having to share quarantine with him by the end of the short.
- In another short, "Mouse for Sale", Tom repeatedly tries to wash Jerry's white colour to reveal to his owner that the "white" mouse isn't who she thinks it is, but is constantly thwarted by Jerry finding other sources to stay coloured in. This eventually prompts Tom to colour himself white to beat Jerry at his own game by the end of the short.
Real Life
- Film companies making temporary changes to locations for shooting sometimes use a paint that's supposed to wash off easily. Or at least they claim to the property owner that it will.
- In winter, military vehicles will often be painted with temporary whitewash paint; once the snow melts, this paint can then be quickly and easily removed.