Sexy Discretion Shot

"For people of [the Hays Code age], one of the sexiest shots in film consisted of waves breaking on the beach. When the director cut to the waves breaking on the beach, someone was getting lucky." —Thomas C. Foster, How to Read Literature Like a Professor

Two characters have been talking, talking has turned to kissing, and as the clothes start coming off and kissing turns to other things the camera sort of wanders off...just panning away as it fades to black, or rests on a candle, window, flower, patch of ceiling, or something. No point is being made about this new subject; we don't care about it, it's just a way of saying "Okay, they're going to have sex now, let's give them their privacy".

This shot can be turned into a passage-of-time montage. A dissolve shows the candle going from just-lit to nearly-melted, the sky outside the window turns from night to day, something like that, and the camera wanders back on over to the couple who are now lying sated beneath their Modesty Bedsheet. Sometimes this dissolve will actually be done with a nearby clock, giving a more accurate concept of the couple's stamina (this is occasionally spoofed when the time only changes by a few minutes or so, implying the sexual prowess of the character[s] isn't exactly impressive).

If it's the woman's first time, you may see a flower drop to the floor to represent her being "deflowered."

A Super-Trope to Oh, Mr. Grant!.

Compare Dress Hits Floor, Kissing Discretion Shot, Take Our Word for It, Coitus Ensues (if the scene doesn't fade to black), Sexy Coat Flashing, Something Else Also Rises.

Contrast Rape Discretion Shot.

Examples of Sexy Discretion Shot include:

Anime & Manga

• In Mariasama ga Miteru, the Discretion Shot actually pans away before a kiss between two girls, and then back (all that happens is a kiss) — apparently the camera has some very old-timey sensibilities. In another case, it pans away when a character unbuttons her pyjama jacket to show a scar on her chest to another character.
• In Neon Genesis Evangelion, there is a scene between Misato and Kaji. The viewers are treated to a view of a glass filled with water.
  • "Don't put strange things in there!"
  • Also subverted in both episode 25 of the TV series and from "End of Evangelion"; both during Misato and Shinji's experience during Instrumentality, respectively.
• In Bleach, Matsumoto, while taking a bath at Orihime's place, comforts her by stepping out of the bath, tickling her, and then throwing her backward onto the floor. Nothing sexual is happening, but the camera still cuts to a blank corner of the wall and ceiling.
  • in another example from Bleach, Uryu gets moderately injured and gets cared for on a couch by a sexy female bount, Yoshino. Eventually they converse about how much life sucks and The following happened:

Yoshino: 'So you're the only Quincy left" Uryu: "Yeah....." Yoshino: "(leans in close) You must be so lonely...." We are then treated to a scene of Uryu's friends searching for him. He is moved to a hospital where his friends quickly find him.

• A notable sex scene occurs, a given because it stands out from the rest of the ambiguous scenes taking place in Akio's car in Revolutionary Girl Utena. During this escapade, Ruka takes Shiori out to Akio's car to discuss Ruka's dueling plans (which is actually a ploy to get Juri, the girl he actually loves, to snap out of her Broken Bird state that Shiori was making her have, and subsquently humiliate the latter girl). Both of them are then shot shoulders up in a state of undress, and then a few more shots of the car, and then finally, two more shots of them throwing their heads back and sighing happily. Given the ambiguous nature of the show and what happens, just about anyone can see clearly what's happening.
  • "Don't you just love the throb of the engine?"
• In Axis Powers Hetalia, this happens right after Greece offers his friend Japan a "private lesson" to improve his sex life.
  • ...which is also combined with a Scream Discretion Shot. One can only imagine.
• Used in Kanamemo episode 11, when canon lesbian couple Yuuki and Yume are seen going to bed together. Cut to an unrelated cartoon sequence ending in an explosion, then the next day Yume sleeping late because she's "exhausted".
• In episode 22 of Macross Frontier, when Sheryl tells Alto to 'give her the courage to sing' and fall into each other's arms, the camera was angled from outside the room, focusing on the koi swimming in the pond, pans up to the sky and then fades out into outer space. Later on, Alto is shown outside the room, with his jacket suspiciously hanging over his shoulders, as opposed to wearing them normally the scene before. It was vague, but the viewers still had the impression of what had happened.
• The first chapter/episode of Monster contains one of these.
• In an episode of Zero Zero Nine One, when Mylene starts to have sex with someone, the camera pans away and zooms in on their wine glasses as the glasses start to shake.
• Ranma ½: This trope happens when Soun imagines the possibilities of sending Ranma and Akane to a hot springs resort for some quality time together. The first thing we see is a scene of them in their room all alone. They're sitting there, side by side, and as they reach for a bun at the same time, their hands touch. The camera cuts to a clip of the window, where we see flowers in a vase. Then we hear Akane say, "Oh, Ranma," and the head of one of the flowers falls off completely.
• Occurs during episode 10 of Sukisho between Sora and Sunao.
• Happens in the anime adaptation of Berserk when Guts and Casca are making love.

Comic Books

• Hilariously, Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. has a discretion shot of his large pistol in a holster when he's hugging a Fury girl. The shot was modified by demand of the Comics Code, and the subtext of the gun is more suggesting than the original panel.
• The newspaper comic 9 Chickweed Lane uses intertwined hands as a visual euphemism (dubbed "handjive" by the fandom).
• In a short story Alan Moore wrote for Omega Men, what is set up to look like a Sexy Discretion Shot turns out to be a Gory Discretion Shot.
• Invoked in a magazine cartoon with two young people watching TV and the boy saying excitedly, "Here's the part I was telling you about! They kiss with all their clothes on, and then the camera just pans up into the trees and leaves it all to your imagination!"

Fan Fic

• The My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic fanfic "Happy Hearth's Warming" cuts away after the two characters enter the bedroom with this explanation:

I am afraid that I must tell you that I cannot relate the events that occurred in the room for it would be a horrible invasion of their privacy. I hope that you can find it in your hearts to forgive me, my dear readers.

• • In a subversion, though, the author later went on to write an uncensored version of the fic...

Film

• The movie The Truman Show has a scene of two guys talking about a Discretion Shot, without actually showing the shot itself.
• Spoofed in the movie Top Secret: the hero and heroine have embraced, started kissing, and have gotten to rolling around on the furniture when we pan away to a fireplace. Then they roll onto the floor right in front of the fireplace, so the camera pans away again...to another fireplace.
  • The director's cut has them rolling in front of that fireplace, too, forcing the camera to pan to the window...and in the window, you can see a building on fire.
  • As if that weren't enough, a few scenes later the shot parodies itself while the characters are parachuting into enemy territory. They start kissing, we pan over to... a fireplace wearing a parachute.
• Also parodied in National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1, where Emilio Estevez and Kathy Ireland are in bed getting ready for it. Pan over to a digital clock. The time advances by one minute, a change of a single digit. Pan back to the bed, where they are smoking cigarettes. Lampshaded later, where Kathy asks if they can actually make love next time instead of just smoking in bed.
• In the gangster spoof Johnny Dangerously, this is parodied (along with Did the Earth Move For You, Too?): the titular character and his love interest start kissing passionately, the camera pans up to some fireworks... and it cuts to another character, who looks up at the fireworks and remarks "Looks like Johnny's getting laid!"
• Serenity has a slightly strange example: Simon and Kaylee start kissing and fall out of the frame, while the camera, staying in place, allows us to see River, peeking at them through a hatch in the ceiling.
• Played with in Click the camera does pan away, but only far enough to show the remote going automatically to fast forward, and their shadows. The aftershot with the Modesty Bedsheet shows them, but only he's satisfied.
• Parodied many times with shots of a train going through a tunnel, rockets blasting off, etc.
  • The train going into a tunnel wasn't quite a parody when Alfred Hitchcock used it at the end of North by Northwest.
    • This parody was subverted by Monty Python's Flying Circus which featured a couple kissing before falling onto a bed. Cut to shots of a tunnel, rockets blasting, towers rising, waves crashing (and incongruously enough Richard Nixon and the Women's Institute applauding). Cut back to the women in bed looking disgruntled who says "Are you actually going to do anything, or just show me films all evening?"
    • Done in Spy Hard, where the scene cuts to Stock Footage of flowers opening, bees pollinating flowers, and a rocket lifting off... and promptly flying off-course and exploding.
  • The best example is The Naked Gun 2 1/2
• The Three Musketeers 1973 uses a textbook 'candle dissolves to a much-shorter candle' shot to indicate d'Artagnan has successfully convinced Madame Bonacieux "why, that's the best place for you, bed ..."
• The Maltese Falcon Sam is leaning in and kissing Brigid in the window, suddenly it's the next morning and the curtains in the window are blowing gently in the sunlight.
• Subverted in OSS 117 Cairo Nest of Spies — the secret agent hero and his girl lay back on the bed, the camera pans right, to some flowers in a pot, then it pan right some more — and we "accidentally" see some jerky, inept-looking (fully clothed) sex in a mirror for a few seconds before the camera "realises" what's happened and quickly pans left back to the flowers.
• Avatar, at the Tree of Voices.
• Used in-universe in Cousins during Mitch's showing of his wedding video.
• The Alfred Hitchcock classic To Catch a Thief plays this trope straight, but so hard that it almost seems like a parody. Check out this clip starting at about 40 seconds in.
• In the film A Place In The Sun, the main character and his girlfriend are slow-dancing in her room. The camera pans over to the window. The rain stops as the sky changes from night to day and her radio now plays static. . .and now we see the man leaving her house. While the pan to the window hinted at it, seeing him leave the house in the daytime confirms that he spent the night with her. The movie was made in 1951 and the scene was likely shot this way to avoid issues with the censors.
• In Me and Orson Welles this trope is both employed (when the image fades to black ofter Sonja invites Richard into the bedroom) and, in its literary form, discussed:

Joseph Cotten: Welcome to "quadruple space", kid. Richard: What's "quadruple space"? Joseph Cotten: You know, in a novel, when the main characters are finally about to schtup. They can't describe it, otherwise they can't print the book. They just go, you know, "he hugged her hard, they fell on to the bed", Period, Quadruple space.

• In Maid in Manhattan, the title character and her paramour embrace. The scene fades away to be replaced by a rosy dawn as the camera pans down to them lying in bed in the afterglow.
• Girl with a Pearl Earring: We see Griet passionately kissing Pieter while standing outside a pub at night with her leg up along his side. There's more kissing, heavy breathing and some partial undressing (no nudity). We later see her finishing getting dressed, thus implying additional fooling around or sex.
• The last shot in The Awful Truth.
• The film noir classic Out Of The Past features a scene where the leading man and the femme fatale walk into his villa, she trips and lands on the couch, and the camera decides it would be an ideal time to go outside and have a quick stroll in the Mexican jungle before returning to find the two of them sitting on the couch drinking whisky and laughing.
• Double Subverted in Picasso Trigger during this hot tub scene with Hope Marie Carlton and Bruce Penhall.(NSFW)

Literature

• The bo k version of The Princess Bride has a variation of this when Buttercup and Westley reunite at the bottom of the ravine in Guilder. The narrator notes that it's enough to say that they were very excited to meet each other again after three years (five in the movie). In the end it doesn't matter anyway, for fifteen minutes later they're arguing about which direction to go.
  • The movie has Fred Savage insisting that Grandpa Peter Falk skip over the kissing part.
• In the book Vamped, the main character/narrator digresses into an aside of this trope, which he called "Insert Fireworks Here". After speaking of his own initial annoyance with the trope, he relates how he came to appreciate its use, then ends the chapter with the stage note "Insert Fireworks Here".
• In one of The Stainless Steel Rat books, the narrator pauses in his description of an impending love scene, handwaving it with something like "and since I never kiss and tell, let's just pull a curtain across that scene."
• Ironically used in the first Dexter novel, wherein the title character is just fine describing gory murder scenes or what he does when the Dark Passenger is driving, but when he and his girlfriend make love for the first time, he is so horrified that he can't bring himself to reflect on it in any detail.
• In Men at Arms, the scene where Carrot and Angua finally succumb to their romantic feelings for each other is summarized thus: "After a while, the bedsprings went glink." The glinkiness of the bedsprings in question had already been established as a Running Gag in the scene.
• Almost certainly takes place between Dido and Aeneas in The Aeneid. The two and many others go out in a hunting party but find themselves stranded alone in a cave when a rainstorm hits, and suddenly the narrator becomes very interested in describing the weather outside and doesn't get back to them for a while. When they emerge from the cave, much later, he makes an offhand remark about how Dido now considers them practically married, while Aeneas... does not so much.
• Dorothy L. Sayers, author of the Lord Peter Wimsey series, apparently had quite definite feelings about preserving her characters' modesty (even by the standards of the times); Busman's Honeymoon has entire chapters devoted to the cause of making it clear, without referring to a single body part, that Peter and Harriet are doing rather well, thank you.
• Lampshaded in So Long And Thanks For All The Fish, where Douglas Adams blatantly starts talking to the audience and telling them that if they don't care to read about Arthur and Fenchurch's impending sex scenes, they can skip ahead to the next chapter.
• Done in Somoza's The Athenian Murders by way of Literary Agent Hypothesis: a scene depicting an orgy is written on damaged papyrus, so that only (suggestive) fragments remain.
• In the Star Trek: Myriad Universes story The Chimes at Midnight, this got played rather straight between Saavik and Davik Marcus:

[...]Their lips met, and in perfect unison their bodies slowly sank down to the ground. On the distant horizon, another volcanic mountaintop erupted, its hot magma shooting forth into the air. And the ground once again trembled, shaken by nature's primal throes.

• In Thunderball, James Bond and Fiona Volpe's sex is represented by a Junkanoo parade. Mostly featuring a man playing a loud horn.
• In Breaking Dawn, Edward and Bella arrive at their honeymoon destination. She takes a shower and goes out on the beach where Edward is. She takes her towel off, he pulls her into his arms and... Oh look, it's the next morning.
• In Stationery Voyagers, it is made very explicit what Carl and Neone are about to do, but all that's really mentioned is him stroking her side where her left shoulder would be if they had shoulders, then her leaning against him and crying, then him gazing into her eyes. Next thing you know, it's another rainy morning, and he's fully dressed and kissing her goodbye as she is waking up and he's off to work.
  • When Liquidon is made human, he takes full advantage of the opportunity to be able to make out with Cindy without the need to use saran wrap as a kissing condom. But while the scene is cut short, it's actually revealed later that they didn't have sex. They did, however deliberate on the matter quite a bit, and decided for religious and moral reasons not to go through with it. This is in spite of Cindy's history, and how much she aches to be with a man again.
• A parody of the Hays Code in I Am America (And So Can You) includes the rule, "If a scene includes a train entering a tunnel, the tunnel shall not be portrayed as enjoying it."
• Because the narration is written in a parody of 19th century novels (especially those of Dumas), in Paarfi narrated sections of Dragaera novels, sex scenes tend to be given this kind of treatment. For example, in the section of Tiassa narrated by Paarfi, there's a scene where Khaavren, who is Happily Married comes home and he and his wife are chatting and being kind of intimate (they like to give each other massages) and Khaavren is talking about how busy he is, but at least he's free for the rest of the evening. Then Paarfi comes in and says something to like "History does not report what they did for the rest of the evening, so he will draw a curtain over that".
• In the Edith Wharton short story "Summer", the protagonist and her soon-to-be lover kiss at the town festival. The reader is promptly treated to a long paragraph offering an elaborate description of fireworks going off.
• In the novel Madame Bovary, the eponymous character and her current paramour get into her carriage, intending to talk. The reader soon realizes that the description of the carriage rocking back and forth is representing something else.
• In The Woman with the Velvet Necklace, Hoffman and Arsene, after a wild evening of piano playing and dancing, fall into bed together. Cut to the next morning. When Arsene turns out to have been Dead All Along.
• Spy High gives Ben and Cally one of these at the end of Calista Green, fading out of the scene as they snuggle in bed together after reuniting.
• One of the stories that made up Poul Anderson's Operation Chaos is the honeymoon of the main characters. As they ride a Flying Carpet, with the autopilot set, the one narrating describes the romantic setting, "and nothing else is any of your business."
• One of the Literary Review's "Bad Sex in Fiction" awards went to a sex scene in which a bunch of unconnected, evocative images play in the head of a female character, who must have seen way too many movies.

Live Action TV

• When Buffy sleeps with Angel in Season 2 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel(us) flees from a bed that Buffy is asleep on, and later there is a misty flashback scene of the two kissing while lying in Angel's bed. (okay, it's a bit more than just kissing, but still far from anything explicit)
  • Played with on another episode; Andrew is making an amateur documentary, and comes across Willow and Kennedy kissing on the couch. He says "Here's something our viewers might find interesting" - then focuses on a window frame and starts speaking admiringly about how well Xander repaired it. This was taken by some fans as less a discretion shot and more a hint that Andrew wasn't like other boys, though he probably still liked them.
  • Not to mention the rocking police car in "Band Candy". Later explicitly revealed in no uncertain terms that Joyce and Giles had sex there. On the hood of the car. Twice.
  • When Faith does a Grand Theft Me she hops into bed with Buffy's boyfriend Riley Finn, whereupon the scene cuts away to Willow and Tara casting a spell with heavy sexual overtones. So we have a Sexy Discretion Shot covered by a Getting Crap Past the Radar shot!
• In every season of The Bachelor, the three finalists are invited to spend the night with the bachelor in the "Fantasy Suite." The camera regularly pulls away from the couple kissing and out the window or behind the closing door. This is done regardless of whether the couple actually slept together or not.
• Used in Scrubs quite often, played both seriously and for laughs.
• In the Star Trek episode "Bread and Circuses", Kirk starts to make out with a slave woman, and the camera pans up to the candles above their heads. In the next shot, the candles have burnt down.
  • An even clearer example is in "Wink of an Eye". One scene ends with Kirk and Deela starting to get friendly; the next time we see them, she's combing her hair and he's putting his boots back on.
  • And Leonard Nimoy has joked about a strategically timed costume change Spock had in This Side of Paradise. Spock gets hit with emotions-inducing flowers, he starts kissing Leila, fade to black. The next time you see him he's in different clothes, as Nimoy put it, "Leaving one to wonder what transpired during the commercial break."
• The 1987 miniseries Casanova, starring Richard Chamberlain, begins with a scene where Casanova, on the lam from the authorities, jumps into a stagecoach occupied by a grand lady played by Faye Dunaway and her two pretty "nieces". After some double-entendre talk and Casanova hiding under the skirt of one of the young ladies (and playing with her satin garters), one of the girls faints face-first into Casanova's lap, Casanova smirks in surprised delight, and the camera cuts away to a shot of the stagecoach rolling down the road, while the footmen posted on the back of the coach crane their necks to get a view of the goings-on inside.
• In The Thorn Birds "midquel" The Missing Years, as Luke and Meggie fall onto the bed, the camera pans up to the window. Night changes to day and when the camera pans back, they're asleep in each others arms, obviously post-coital.
• Used for laughs in the That 70s Show episode "The Velvet Rope". Jackie and Kelso are shown kissing and laying down on her bed. The camera then cuts to a digital clock showing 6:48. It swithches to 6:49, then 6:50... then the camera cuts back to the bed, where Kelso is already putting his shirt back on.
• Subverted in a season one episode of Growing Pains. Mike has the local Village Bicycle over, and she is enticing him into bed. The camera pans away, focusing on a picture of Mike's parents. When they get home, he confesses to his mother that he actually did not sleep with her.
• Done very well in The Phantom of the Opera miniseries. Christine and childhood sweetheart Phillippe are walking through the woods. They stop to embrace passionately. This fades right into another shot of them walking out of the forest. Both fully dressed, but he's now carrying his jacket, while her dress laces are sloppily done and her hair is mussed.
• Full House: Jessie spends a whole episode trying to be the perfect stay-at-home dad to convince Becky they can have another baby. In the end, it's Becky covering a miraculous birth on Wake Up, San Francisco! that changes her mind. (Although they never do have another baby during the course of the show...)

Jessie: Just one question... when would you like to start? Becky: Now works for me. (They get in bed, lights out, and the episode ends.)

• Mad Men normally isn't shy about showing as much of sex as they can get away with, but a nod to this trope occurs in the episode "Maidenform." Pete goes to a girl's apartment in the middle of the night, and she turns on the TV so her mother won't hear them. What comes on is aviation footage with a narrator reading "High Flight."

Music

• Rod Stewart's song "Do You Think I'm Sexy?". The listener is treated to a long musical interlude as the protagonist arrives home with his one-night stand, and the interlude ends with them waking up the next morning, quite happy and content.
• Happens in the end of the Barry Manilow & K.T. Oslin cover of "Baby It's Cold Outside".

Religion

• Song of Solomon chapter 4 cuts out just before they get it on.

Theater

• In Aida, Radames and Aida embrace passionately at the end of their duet "Elaborate Lives". The scene fades out. When it fades back in, they're lying on the ground in each others arms. He's shirtless and her dress is wrapped around her in Modesty Bedsheet style.
• In Miss Saigon, the lights begin to dim as Chris and Kim undress, then fade out completely as they get into bed. There's similar staging during his later love scene with Ellen.
• West Side Story. At the end of their duet "Somewhere", Tony and Maria kiss and sink from view. By the time the scene returns to her room, it's obvious what's transpired--they're both wearing little more than their underwear.
• Possibly in Phantom of the Opera. The lights go out at the conclusion of "Music of the Night", leading to endless speculation by fans that sex may have occurred between the Phantom and Christine.
• In South Pacific, Joe takes off his shirt, Liat removes hers. . .and the lights go out as they embrace and fall to the floor.

Video Games

• In the Fable games, the player can choose to sleep with their spouse, lover, or a prostitute. Doing so cuts to a black screen, with the partner's comments heard.
  • Similarly, in Star Control 2 you can seduce Captain Talana. The screen goes black, but you can still read their sexy dialog: "Cowabunga!"
• In Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, the player can choose to sleep with his girlfriends. If he does so, the camera shows the outside of the house while you hear the sounds of love. Amusingly, Rockstar was actually planning to allow the player to control the sex scenes, but wisely changed the game to prevent it. When a man later discovered them, it spawned the infamous Hot Coffee mod controversy.
  • It also happens in the intro to the "Gone Courting" mission, where Catalina decides to jump C.J.'s bones, and from what she brings into the encounter in question, she's into S&M in a big way.
  • Not to mention, the player can pick up hookers on the street and take them to a quiet area for some fun. This causes the car to rock violently, but nothing can be viewed... Unless you change the camera to see inside the car, when both the player's character and his prostitute just sitting there, facing forward and not moving, the sounds apparently coming from nowhere.
    • This is itself averted in Grand Theft Auto IV. If you sleep with Niko's girlfriend you get the Sexy Discretion Shot. If you hire a prostitute and swing the camera around you can see exactly what's she's doing.
• Averted as well in Red Dead Redemption, where in one of the missions John stumbles upon Abraham Reyes railing a peasant girl on a table.
• Similiar to GTA, God of War also allows the player to get some action offscreen, while pressing the displayed buttons.
  • Subverted in 3. While you're boinking Aphrodite offscreen, her handmaidens are doing foreplay onscreen.
• In Disgaea 3 Absence of Justice, a Horny Devil teaches a class on how to "influence" people. We don't see her "lecture", just the male characters' reactions.
• In Persona 3 and Persona 4 when the main character is alone with one of his love interests (after maxing her Social Link), the screen will fade out with some sort of statement about 'spending a long time together' or 'sharing an intimate moment'.
  • Even better with Naoto. She gives you one of a pair of watches that have a simple tracking mechanism. Shortly after, the screen fades to black and there's only one message. "Distance < 1m"
• Overlord does this when you've bought everything your romantic interest wants. The one with the "good" (more psychotically obsessed with order) option girl is particularly amusing as you catch her increasingly out of breath lecture on military tactics. One will never react to the phrase "pincher movement" the same again.
• In the denouement of Metal Gear Solid 3, a romantic evening between Naked Snake and EVA ends with the camera panning over to the fireplace before cutting to Snake waking up, barechested.
  • If the player manages to make it all the way to the waterfall cave without extracting the Tracking Device from Snake's leg, you'll be treated to a rather amusing lampshade of this trope.
  • But with his pants on...
  • And in Metal Gear Solid 4, a cutscene shows Naomi and Otacon dancing around some awkward flirting, near-kisses, and UST before (at her request) he shows her to a private bunk on the plane (presumably, so she wouldn't have to bunk with the lads). She vanishes within, and he loiters outside it for a minute or so before she reaches out and yanks him inside. End cutscene.
  • If Big Boss successfully manages to reach maximum affection with Paz or Kaz in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, and chooses to have sex with them, we see his partner hop inside his cardboard box with him, which then starts jostling suggestively as little hearts appear above it.
• One of the cities in Jagged Alliance 2 has an, um, establishment where, if you drop a few hundred bucks to the nice madam at the door, the usual map view changes to a smiley face while happy noises and glinking bed-springs are heard. (The scene is not accessible in all versions of the game, though.)
• In Final Fantasy VII. The night before the final battle Cloud tries confessing his love to Tifa. When he is unable to find the words Tifa suggests expressing how he feels without words. Cue fade to black. With Cloud and Tifa laying on each other the next morning.
• The romance scenes in Mass Effect 2, which may have been a reaction to all the hubbub surrounding the ones in the first game. The most we get is a shot of Miranda's undergarments, the others cut out before either party starts taking anything off.
  • Apart from Tali's mask.
  • And Jacob's shirt.
• Jade Empire gives us the kiss for heterosexual couples and some lines implying that more is about to happen, but nothing more than that.
• Farah and the Prince get one in Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.
• Used in Conquests of the Longbow with a lampshade from the narrator about giving the characters some privacy.

Webcomics

• In The Order of the Stick, the "camera" pulls away to a view of the outside of the inn as Elan and Haley start making out.
• In Misfile: Missi tries to kiss Ash, but is Denied. Missi proclaims her desire, so Ash goes for it. Missi pushes Ash back on the bed... oh, look, there's one of those mood candles!
• Girly used a discretion shot of frolicking cute and cuddly animals for 762 of its 764 strips. The 763rd...well, just look (NSFW)
• In the Ciem Webcomic Series, scenes were constantly cutting out right after a makeout scene, usually coupled with copious gaussian blur to show just how consumed with desire Candi was.
  • In the book, right after she and Denny elope, he is seen taking her back to the bedroom. He moves a little closer, but nothing is described below the shoulders. The focus moves to Candi's eyes, which shut and develop dark auras that form like bruises, indicating a ruptured hymen. (How she didn't manage to rupture it earlier through all her death-defying battles is never explained.) As the lights get turned out, all that is left before the scene moves on is mention of how she felt and mention of curling toes. It's assumed readers don't need to know what else goes where. Heavy on Lime, easy on Lemon.
    • Although when Candi seduces Donte near the book's beginning, a very mild amount of detail goes into explaining her motivations, and his for going along with it in spite his lack of confidence. There are frequent cutaways to fantasies and memories playing inside their heads, in order to keep the scene from degenerating into pornography. If adapted as film, much of this scene will likely be edited out. This is because the author believes that readers of a book can handle discussions of sex better than a director can be trusted with showing it.

Web Original

• One Protectors of the Plot Continuum episode has just-married Agents going to the Room of Requirement for a break from a Mary Sue, and skips from when they're obviously about to get Ready for Lovemaking to when they're lying together sometime after sex.
• The Phase novels in the Whateley Universe: Phase and his girlfriend Vox are no longer virgins. But every time such a scene occurs, Phase (the narrator) skips over the details. Once he flat out tells the reader 'it's none of your business'.

Western Animation

• Batman: Mask of The Phantasm does this twice with Bruce Wayne and Andrea Beaumont (one in flashback). Both times, the camera pans away to a slightly ajar doorway, in which Alfred appeared, muttered a quick "Oh my", and moved away.
  • But subverted in the first time, as the camera pans to them making out on the grass. The second time however, it is made clear exactly what went on off screen, especially in the scene afterwards, it shows Andrea sitting on the balcony gazing at the sea, wearing nothing but Bruce's shirt. Bruce himself is seen wearing nothing but pants.
    • This is not the only time this would happen in the DCAU. After finally admitting they have feelings for each other Green Lantern/John Stewart and Shayera Hol kiss for the first time on a recovery bed, with the backdrop of space lighting the area. It then cuts to a woman winning the jackpot at Las Vegas proclaiming "finally!"
    • And there is a scene where Terry and Melanie aka Ten are kissing, then fall onto Terry's bed and the camera slowly moves away...
    • Also in the episode "Sneak Peek" in which Terry watches a news program "The Inside Peek" that exposes secrets, especially one involving Paxton Powers. We see him grabbing a girl with his towel and it cuts to Terry's awkward look which leads to this scene:

Matt: What are they doing? Terry: This isn't for you. [puts hand on matt's face blocking his view] Matt: I wanna see, I wanna see! [Mary turns off TV] Terry and Matt: Hey! Mary: I don't want you watching this.

• South Park subverts this trope for laughs. Instead of changing the shot during a provocative scene, it switches from two women about to kiss to the two women having sex.
• The Simpsons: Not shying away about sex even when left to the imagination, this trope happens in several episodes:
  • The episode "Grade School Confidential" has Principal Skinner and Edna Krabappel having a conversation, eating applesauce, and then making out in Edna's apartment only to have sex on the kitchen floor; thus explained with the Charlie Brown Wax Candle burning down to its feet.

Edna: Seymour, swallow that applesauce and kiss me. Skinner: I'm afraid I already swallowed it while you were talking.

• • "Insane Clown Poppy": In Krusty's flashback about how Krusty met Sophie's mother in the Gulf War, we see Krusty and her kissing and embracing each other in a army tent and then it pans to the window shot of the burning torches in the desert which 'burned out' like candles in the morning.

Krusty: There was your mother — looking like a beautiful mirage. Maybe it was the anthrax in the air, maybe it was the fact that the Arab women weren't biting, whatever it was, it was magic.

• • "Mr. Spritz Goes to Washington": The still 'far out' shot of the "Ye Olde Off-Ramp Inn" when Mayor Quimby has sex with one of his lady friends.

Mayor Quimby: Vote Quimby, vote Quimby, vote Quimby, VOTE QUIMBY! [orgasmic moan]

• • "She Used to Be My Girl": After rescuing Chloe, Barney is rewarded with pity sex in which we see the shot of the helicopter humping up and down.
  • "Treehouse of Horror XVI": Happens at the end of the second segment, "Survival of the Fattest", in which after everyone dies by Mr. Burns hunting rifle on a reality show with Homer surviving and after Marge bops both Burns and Smithers with two frying pans, both of them immediately have sex only to have commentator Terry Bradshaw as the 'Discrection' shot.
  • Subverted in "Lisa's First Word" which happens in this scene:

Bart: Mom, what was my first word? Marge: Hmmm... [Flashback to baby Bart walking on his parents having sex] Baby Bart: Ay caramba! [Returns to present] Marge: I don't think I remember.

• • "The Devil Wears Nada": Near the end in which Marge(after eating strawberries with whipped cream and spending a brief but near-kiss moments twice with Ned in the Simpsons house) and Homer(back from his trip with Carl in Paris) immediately have sex, as usual. Cut to shaking family pictures in the living room, cut to SLH and a white dog(similar to the Lady and the Tramp dog) nose rubbing in the doghouse, and finally cut to birds forming the shape of a heart.
  • "Dangerous Curves": In a scene in this flashback episode, Ned and Maude (seducing him modestly) kiss and then turns out the lights while Homer and Marge, unmarried, are seperated in different rooms.
  • Subverted in the flashback episode "And Maggie Makes Three" in this scene after Homer and Marge spent a romantic evening celebrating their new life:

Homer: [sighs] I love you, Marge. Marge: I love you too, Homey. Homer: Everything in our lives is finally perfectly balanced. I hope things stay exactly like this forever. Marge: Mm hmm. Seconds later" scene shows lots of little Homer sperm bumping their heads and going "D'oh! D'oh! [one breaks through the egg and goes "Woo hoo!"] [scene switch to present day, Homer swimming like a sperm] Marge: Did you have to be so graphic? Homer: It's OK, Marge: they pave the way for this kind of filth in school.

• • "Grampa vs. Sexual Inadequacy". After telling Abe about how weak their sex life is, Abe gives Homer some tonic to improve his sex life with Marge leading to shots of a train going into a tunnel, a rocket blasting off, and hot dogs falling in a factory which pans back to reveal Bart, Lisa and Maggie in a movie theater watching stock footage of all three:

Lisa: Whaddya think mom and dad are doing right now? Bart: I dunno.

• • • Later in the episode, the same goes for many other married couples who took the tonic leaving Bart, Lisa, and Milhouse to believe different conclusions:

Bart: OK, it's not 'painfully' clear the adults are 'definitely' paving the way for an invasion by the saucer people. Milhouse: You fool! Can't you see it's a massive government conspiracy? Or have they gotten to you too? [he and Bart start wrestling] Lisa: Hey! Hey, hey, stop it! Stop it! Why are you guys jumping to such ridiculous conclusions? Haven't you ever heard of Occam's Razor? "The simplest explanation is probably the correct one." Bart: [condescending] So what's the simplest explanation? Lisa: I don't know. Maybe they're all reverse vampires and they have to get home before dark. Everyone: Aah! Reverse vampires! Reverse vampires! [Lisa sighs]

• • • And later:

Bart: So finally, we're all in agreement about what's going on with the adults. Milhouse? Milhouse: [steps up to blackboard] Ahem. OK, here's what we've got: the Rand Corporation, in conjunction with the saucer people -- Bart: Thank you. Milhouse: — under the supervision of the reverse vampires -- Lisa: [sighs] Milhouse: — are forcing our parents to go to bed early in a fiendish plot to eliminate the meal of dinner. [sotto voce] We're through the looking glass, here, people...

• • "I Married Marge": In this flashback episode in how Bart was born, Homer and Marge make out in the minature golf castle:

Marge: Maybe it's the champale talking, but I think you're pretty sexy. Homer: Really? It be the champale talking. [Homer and Marge kiss] Marge: What if we get caught? Homer: Don't worry. This castle is impregnable.

• • • Then after that, a golfer putts a golf ball into the 'free game' hole which flashes.
  • "Catch 'Em If You Can": Near the end of the episode in which Homer and Marge finally make love, which we don't see explicitly, in an inflated castle floating in the Niagra river.
  • "The Boys of Bummer": Happens in the subplot of the episode. When trying to steal back their mattress from the Lovejoys' bedroom, Homer and Marge stare at each other seductively. Then it cuts outside to the Lovejoys arriving home excited to make love once again before spotting Homer and Marge in their bedroom. Then cuts back to the bedroom and we see Homer and Marge immediately naked between the sheets.
  • The very end of "Colonel Homer" in which Homer and Marge are making out and before they have sex, Homer throws his white cowboy hat toward the screen blacking it out till the credits appear.
  • "Black Widower": Happens after the end of Sideshow Bob and Selma's honeymoon video:

Sideshow Bob: Oh, Selma dear. You and your little camera. Whaddya say we shut it off for awhile... Selma: ...and make love? [Selma removes the sheets revealing her nude] Sideshow Bob: [sighs] I suppose. [tape ends] Marge: Aww, that's sweet.

• • "Some Enchanted Evening": Happens at the very end with these lines during the credits:

Homer: Can we make up again? Marge: Oh, my goodness.

• • "A Star is Born Again": After a concert, Ned Flanders, after consulting bible verses before he engages into pre-marital sex with Sara Sloane, makes out with her on the picnic carpet. Then it cuts to sunrise and it pans down showing both Ned and Sarah naked under the sheets along with their clothes lying on the grass.
  • Subverted in "The Haw-Hawed Couple". Happens at the beginning when Lisa complains about Bart drinking coffee(which is Pepsi, Bart claims) when they hear Homer and Marge arguing only for it to turn out to be a fake tape recording to distract Bart and Lisa, while the real Homer and Marge prepare to make love. When they do, they quickly took off their bed pajamas and Marge accidentally hits the 'play' button with her slippers causing it to play "A Horse With No Name". This leaves Bart and Lisa to curiously open the door to see what's 'really' going on only for Bart to feel tramatized ever since Homer told him about the 'facts of life' in "All's Fair in Oven War".

Milhouse: Trust me Bart, it's better to walk in on both your parents than on just one of them.

• • "Bart's Friend Falls in Love": Happens in the Troy McClure Fuzzie Bunny sex education film Mrs Krapabbel shows to her students:

Troy (from film): That night came the Honeymoon. [sexual music plays] Class: Eww! Edna: She's faking it.

• • Treehouse of Horror XVIII: Near the end of "Mr. and Ms. Simpson" in which Homer and Marge kiss each other passionately realizing they're more attracted then ever, after killing Chief Wiggum together. Then it cuts to both of them lying on Wiggum's body seen naked in the morning.

Marge: What a wonderful night.

• • "A Hunka Hunka Burns in Love": Happens when Homer takes a shot of Burns' afrodisiac and races home carrying Marge to their bedroom. Then it cuts to both of them naked in the bed.
  • "The Burns and the Bees": To keep Lisa's bees from becoming extinct, Homer and Moe conduct a plan to mate them using africanized bees. When they put the queen in the bottle before covering it with a cloth, both Homer and Moe spice up the moment lighting candles and dimming the lights with the song "Sea of Love" playing in the background.

Moe: Got the queen? Homer: Yep, and she's ready for a night of anonymous sex with multiple partners. [laughs] Moe: [moe puts queen in africanized bee water bottle and covers it] Now lets give them some privacy while they get down with the buzziness. [Homer and Moe play "Sea of Love" record, light candles and dim lights] Moe: [sighs] If they was me, they'd be done by now.

• Lampshaded in the Family Guy episode, "Welcome Back, Carter", when Carter Pewterschmidt first meets his later wife, Barbara:

Carter: Now, let's kiss while the camera pans over to the drapes! (camera pans to the drapes) Carter: Good stuff happening here! All implied.

• Futurama In the episode "The Late Phillip J. Fry", Bender makes out and has robotic sex with another female robot off-screen which disturbs Fry.
  • "The Prisoner of Benda": Happens between Fry, who's in Zoidberg's body, and Leela, who's in Professor Farnworth's body, when both argue and do disgusting acts at each other when they're on a date only to have them make out on the table. Later, we see them in bed naked in the same bodies, after making love.
  • "Put Your Head On My Shoulder": Double Subverted. After talking with each other while driving on Mercury and then using up all fuel on the car, Fry and Amy look at each other seductively. Then hours later, as described with the sun setting downwards, a tow driver wipes the glass of Amy's car revealing them to play cards inside. Then, when Amy's car towed, both Fry and Amy immediately make out on the floor of the car and you know the rest...
  • "Amazon Women in the Mood": The "Snu-Snu" scenes with Fry, Zapp and Kif.
  • "A Flight To Remember": One scene with Bender and the Countess parodies the sex scene from James Cameron's Titanic.
  • "A Biclops Built For Two": Happens between Leela and Alcazar after he tells her the history about their heritage.
  • "How Hermes Requisitioned His Groove Back": Happens between Fry and Morgan Proctor in Bender's closet. Morgan sees Fry as she unbuttons her blouse before proceding to have sex with fry. Cut to Bender walking with a candle he made for Fry and then walking in on both Fry and Morgan naked under the sheets.
  • "Mother's Day": Happens between Professor Farnsworth and Mom when attempting to seduce her to get the robot controls from her bra only for Farnsworth to throw away the bra blinded by his lust for Mom. Later, the rest of the Planet Express crew barged in the house and after Fry opens the bedroom door, we see both Farnsworth and Mom in bed naked.
• Surprisingly enough for a show mostly intended for kids, Ben 10: Ultimate Alien did one between Darkstar and Charmcaster, though it was done in a way subtle enough to have only older audience see it.

Real Life

• A semi-famous blackmail case involved a blackmailer hiding behind curtains in order to catch a solicitor and his mistress on camera. He waited, and his moment came - he dashed out from behind the curtain, took the photograph, and demanded money. When the photograph was developed, however, it showed a refrigerator in the corner of the room.