K.O.!
A trope where a character defeats their opponent by removing their clothes. This might be done on purpose, be a result of using a Wardrobe Malfunction or Clothing Damage to one's advantage, or be done by ones allies. Specific methods of doing this can involve flashing specific body parts, stripping nude or down to one's undergarments, or wearing skimpy clothes, underwear, or one's birthday suit into a fight in advance. In some series, a justification for Chainmail Bikinis and other Stripperiffic outfits is that it distracts the enemy.
The purpose of this tactic is to make the target too distracted to fight. The target might become too Distracted by the Sexy and leave themselves open, blush and look away, or become paralyzed. Some media such as anime, manga, and video games might have the character be knocked out via nosebleed. Depending on a character's sexual orientation or preferences of the target, they might be defeated by being too horrified or disgusted at the exposed body of the victor.
There are multiple types of characters who could use this tactic. A Combat Pragmatist might resort to the tactic even if they have a sense of shame. A Reluctant Fanservice Girl may do it if they have no other choice, a Shameless Fanservice Girl may eagerly do it, while an Innocent Fanservice Girl may be goaded into doing so or unwittingly do it.
Opposite Trope to Defeat by Modesty. Compare You Can Leave Your Hat On. May involve using Show Some Leg, Sexy Coat Flashing, or Skimpiness Seduction. Someone resorting to a Full-Frontal Assault might make use of this intentionally or unintentionally. May overlap with Battle Strip.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Armed Girl's Machiavellism: Satori attacks Nomura with her sword while naked, exploiting the fact that doing this distracts him so she can get the advantage. He eventually turns the tables on her by stripping naked as well. She gets distracted and he is able to defeat her.
- Dragon Ball:
- Ranfan attempts this during her fight with Nam by stripping down to her underwear. While Nam is initially too flustered to attack, he eventually counters this tactic by closing his eyes so he can't see her and wins.
- A variant where the opponent doesn't see the immodesty happens during Yamcha's fight with See-Through the Invisible Man, where Krillin decides to help Yamcha win by having Bulma and Roshi be facing each other, then pulling down Bulma's top, which causes Roshi to have a nosebleed which covers See-Through in blood which lets Yamcha be able to see and defeat him.
- Karin: In the anime, during Karin's fight against the Vampire Hunter Victor Sinclair, he accidently cuts off her top, which exposes her breasts, which leads to him becoming unconscious due to a massive Nosebleed.
- Mazinkaiser: Koji accidentally weaponizes this in episode four of the OVA when he accidentally undoes Sayaka’s bikini top, dazzling the Iron Masks with her breasts before Koji constantly kicks Boss into them. When they get to their mechs, Sayaka slaps Koji for the indignity of it all.
- Ranma ½:
- Ranma has a Gender Bender curse that transforms him into a girl. He has no sense of feminine modesty. So, if Ranma ends up topless in a fight and transforms, his foes are known to get flustered, particularly his rival, Ryōga. Naturally, Ranma has deliberately exploited this from time to time, such as in "The Ryōga-Mousse Alliance".
- In a manga chapter, later adapted as the OAV video "The Two Akanes! 'Ranma Look At Me!'", Akane is subjected to Grand Theft Me after Ranma angers the vengeful spirit in a doll at a mountain inn. The spirit, in Akane's body, tries several tricks to distract Ranma and kill him, finally settling for undoing her hakama in the moonlight and declaring, "Ranma, look at me." It almost works, too, as Ranma is not only Distracted by the Sexy, but Akane, in the doll's body, tries to keep Ranma from ogling her real body, blinding Ranma to the vengeful spirit's attempt to brain him with a large stone. Ultimately a subversion, as the initial attack misses, but if the vengeful spirit had had better aim, it would have been curtains for Ranma.
- In an episode of Yo-kai Watch, Nate defeats a Yo-Kai by making her think about Nate repeatedly pulling his pants up and down until said Yo-Kai gets embarrassed and flies away.
Comic Books
- Red Sonja: Some writers explain that the titular character wears her signature Chainmail Bikini rather than more practical armor because it's useful for distracting her (usually male) opponents.
Comic Strips
- One Old Master Q strip has the titular character get into a fight with a woman. She removes her coat, with a karate uniform underneath revealing she's a black belt karateka, so Master Q retaliates by... removing his shirt, pants, everything, standing naked before her (seen only from the back) causing the woman to flee while covering her eyes.
Fan Works
- Ed, Edd n Eddy: The Teen Series: In "Return of the Eds", Rachel manages to defeat an Acid by flashing herself to distract him, allowing for her mom Nikki to defeat the Acid.
- Total Drama Comeback Series: In Comeback, during the kart-racing challenge, the karts are approaching the finish line. Izzy flashes the Sunday Drivers' kart (with her bra on) as a distraction, and Tyler is so shocked he crashes his team's kart into the Vroom Vroomers' kart, securing victory for the Red Light Runners and the Tire Squealers.
Films — Animated
- Underfist: Early in the movie, Endsville gets invaded by candy soldiers, and they spray Hoss Delgado with grape soda. Hoss is obviously unharmed, but he complains that they made his clothes sticky and gross, so now he'll have to fight naked. He then rips open his shirt, revealing his extremely hairy chest. The candy soldiers are so disgusted by the thought of seeing him naked that they immediately retreat.
Films — Live-Action
- Boy Meets Girl: A flashback shows Ricky confronting a guy in a trench coat flashing trick-or-treaters by raising her skirt and flashing him right back, revealing she has a penis and startling the guy so much he freezes and gets tackled by the cops.
- Deadpool: During Colossus and Angel Dust's fight, her top comes undone so Colossus pauses the battle to let her put it back on. She thanks him for being so polite and then punches him in the groin.
- Duel to the Death: A female ninja attacking a Shaolin monk suddenly tears off her clothes, and the monk looks away. She immediately takes him prisoner with an Inescapable Net.
- Used by Oyuki in Baby Cart in Peril from the Lone Wolf and Cub series, who stuns her opponents by flashing her breasts — and more importantly, the shocking tattoos thereon — at them.
- MacGruber: When the title character needs to help his teammate Piper take out some snipers, his strategy to distract them to give Piper the opening is... to go out right in front of them completely naked and dance around with a stick of celery in his ass. The snipers are so bewildered by Mac that it gives Piper the opening he needs to kill them. Although, Piper himself is also briefly distracted in complete disbelief. Though Piper later adopts the method himself to help MacGruber get an opening to defeat Cunth's men.
Literature
- Cooking with Wild Game plays with the trope. Under Forest Edge's law, a man who sees the naked body of a woman he's not married or related to is considered a rapist and executed accordingly. At one point, the villainous Suun clan try to exploit this law by kidnapping a guy they hate and arranging for him to see one of their women naked. Fortunately, the judges who punish the Suun for the many other crimes the clan committed during that time don't accept this ploy for a moment.
- In How to Survive a Horror Movie, the surest way to defeat Satan is to whip out your penis. Since Male Frontal Nudity doesn't exist in the Terrorverse, this will immediately pull you out of any horror movie you're trapped in and back to the real world (unfortunately, as one might guess, it only works for men, so women who encounter the Devil will have to find a man to do it for them).
- Modesty Blaise practices a move she calls The Nailer, where she gains extra time when she has to go through a door into a room full of thugs by walking in topless, guaranteeing that she gets the first move while most or all of the thugs are still looking at her chest.
Live-Action TV
- 1000 Ways to Die: "M-R-Ouch!" has a night shift nurse being held at gunpoint by a drug addict looking for drugs, and he keeps her gun pointed at her even when he gets some. In order to disarm him, she strips down to her underwear to distract him and turns on the MRI machine which causes the gun to fly towards it. However, because the man has a metal plate in his head, he also flies towards it head first and dies from the impact.
- Castle: Discussed in "Under the Gun". Beckett's training officer, Royce, has shown up as a bounty hunter. He's discussing some of his past work involving Beckett with Castle, and tells a story about how, when Royce was being held at gunpoint, Beckett told the assailant that if he'd drop the gun, she'd show him her boobs. Beckett informs Castle, as well as Ryan and Esposito who both garnered sudden interest, that she didn't have to make good on the promise because the perp had the same slack-jawed expression on his face that they did at that moment. Later, Beckett is telling Royce about the events of "Suckerpunch", wherein she had to shoot the assassin who'd killed her mother before he gave up the name of the man who hired him. Royce says that was a mistake, then grins and says she should have just offered to show him her boobs.
- Danger 5: Ilsa makes Jackson lose his staring contest with Tucker by taking off her panties and throwing them in his face. The fact that he can hear Ilsa crossing and uncrossing her long leather boots doesn't help.
- In Dark Angel's "Exposure", Max is on the receiving end of a telekinetic Curb-Stomp Battle by a boy monk (long story). He assures her she can't win, and she responds by lifting her shirt up and showing him her breasts. The boy's eyes widen as he forgets about what he was doing, and Max lays him out cold with one punch ("Made you look!").
- In the Friends episode "The One with the Football", the gang has decided to play a football game, guys vs. girls. At one point Phoebe flashes Chandler to distract him long enough for her to snatch the football from his hands. He just stands still with a goofy grin on his face.
- Xena: Warrior Princess: In "Altared States", Xena and Gabrielle are Skinny Dipping when some soldiers chasing a boy come across them. Xena slowly emerges from the water, distracting a soldier before punching his lights out.
Myths & Religion
- In one Irish folktale, a knight tricks a girl into running away with him. He takes her to a shore, reveals that he drowned seven girls, and plans to make her the eighth. She begs him, for modesty's sake, to not look as she disrobes. When he's not looking, she either pushes him in or takes his sword and kills him.
- Ancient Greek courtesan Phryne was once accused of blasphemy and rather infamously avoided to be found guilty by tearing her dress open and baring her breasts to the judges. Following the incident, a law forbidding the accused to be present while the jury considered the verdict was passed to prevent anyone else from using the same trick.
Tabletop Game
- Dungeons & Dragons:
- In some early editions, nymphs actually use their nudity as a weapon. Their beauty is so great that even seeing a clothed one can render a mortal blind, and seeing one naked can be literally fatal to the viewer. This was eventually changed in later editions; nymphs either focused their beauty as a sort of overwhelming aura, or in the most recent edition, didn't have powers based on their beauty at all. Seduction and trickery, however...
- Pale Night is a demon who's one of the oldest beings in existence. Her appearance is that of a feminine humanoid shape draped in a white shroud. This shroud is not actually a garment of any kind, it's reality itself trying to censor her, and her most powerful attack is to temporarily remove the shroud and expose everyone in the area to her undisguised visage. This is such a horrific sight that every non-demon in the area must make a saving throw or die instantly, and succeeding on the saving throw means you simply failed to comprehend what you saw.
- Shadowrun: The Urban Brawl player Svetlana Jurjewa is famous for her tactic of flashing her breasts during games to distract members of the enemy team, allowing her teammates to score on them. Other female Urban Brawl players are noted to have started copying her tactic, as well. It's noted as being technically against the rules but popular enough with audiences that it's allowed to happen anyway.
Video Games
- The Adventures of Willy Beamish has one way to recover the key from the sister while in the bathroom. The immodesty doesn't normally stop her, but she is scared by your frog, causing her immodesty to make her feel vulnerable.
- Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance: The Succubus class's ultimate attack, Dazzling Stage, starts off by having the succubus pole dance in front of the enemies before having a wardrobe malfunction which results in the enemy taking damage.
- Fate/EXTRA When Gilgamesh fights Elizabeth, he uses an "ability" that instantly strips himself nude aside from his jewelry and a glowing censor light. His nude form leaves Elizabeth babbling and unable to fight, and when Gilgamesh strikes a pose she's outright defeated by him.
Gilgamesh: I see you are speechless. It is no surprise; the splendor of my naked form surpasses all the diamonds in the world! It should be even more glorious for a virgin...
- In Granblue Fantasy, Claudia lifts her skirt in front of Soriz during their match in the "A Thousand Reasons" event (as she is aware that her opponent is a Dirty Old Man). This distracts him enough to let her knock him out of the ring in one hit. Aliza, who is watching the fight, isn't amazed by this tactic.
- Killer Instinct: Black Orchid's Heart Attack ultimate combo fatality has her flash her breasts, which if used on a male opponent causes him to die of a Hollywood Heart Attack. If used on another Orchid, she instead stomps her heels in jealousy.
- Played for Horror in LISA, where Buddy can flash enemies to fluster them. Buddy is also a pubescent girl, and the fact that it works on most of the enemies is meant to display how perverted and desperate the people of Olathe have become after the Flash.
Visual Novels
- Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony: When Gonta starts chasing people around the school, Miu strips down to her underwear, knowing he would be too chivalrous to look or lay a finger on her. It works and Gonta leaves her alone.
Webcomics
- Girl Genius: Agatha's idea of a "normal" plan to stop assassins pursuing Lady Selnikov consists of being en déshabillé, causing the assassins to be Distracted by the Sexy long enough for her allies to capture the assassin. The reason she goes this route instead her usual Mad Scientist methods is to avoid being recognized, though her chosen method has... mixed results.
- Grrl Power: During Math's fight with Jabberwokky, he rips open her jacket and is immediately Distracted by the Sexy as she is only wearing a fishnet top underneath. Jabberwokky drops him with a knee to the face and an embarrassed, "I can't believe I beat you with booby style."
- Distractarella from League of Super Redundant Heroes has Distracted by the Sexy as her superpower. Sometimes, when the heroes take measures, she raises the level by pointing out she is only wearing Body Paint or removing her nipple pasties.
Western Animation
- Bob's Burgers: In "Beefsquatch", Bob and Gene get their own segment on a local news show, but they become more adversarial as time passes, not helped by the hosts, who egg them on for the ratings. When father and son come to blows on live TV, Linda tries to stop the broadcast; her first attempt is to swear, but after it fails (because the swears aren't as strong as she thinks they are), she resorts to taking off her shirt and flashing her breasts on camera.
Linda: This is to save my family! A boobity-boobity-boobity-boo!
- Family Guy: In "A Fistful of Meg", before Meg's fight with school bully Mental Mike, Quagmire trains and advises her to use her grossness to win. She does so by grossing Mike out, and eventually flashes her boobs, which Mike is so disgusted by that he melts as if he saw the Ark of the Covenant.
- Gravity Falls: In "Summerween", Grunkle Stan tries to scare away two bratty trick-or-treaters but none of his tricks work because they've watched horror movies since they were little. He finally manages to terrify them when they accidently see him half-naked when they come into his house to get candy.
- Robot Chicken: In "Sailor Moon Confronted", Sailor Moon is able to defeat a monster without fighting him because he suffers from a Raging Stiffie due to her underwear-exposing miniskirt, which causes him to just go away.
- Teen Titans Go!: In the episode "Laundry Day", Robin is locked outside naked. Gizmo arrives and attempts to take over Jump City, but when he sees naked Robin, he gets uncomfortable, causing him to retreat and say that he'll come back another day.
- Total Drama: In "X-Treme Torture," Heather accidentally does this during the water-skiing challenge, when she's driving and towing Harold (who is on the opposite team) behind her. A stray tree branch rips her top off, and Harold is stunned long enough for him to crash into a rock, losing the challenge for the Killer Bass. Cut to him in the confessional, dreamily saying, "Boobies..."