I cut myself shaving

Cut Himself Shaving

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A form of Implausible Deniability used to explain away a suspicious wound or injury. The work also makes it clear that no one buys it, or at least has serious doubts that the «shaving» victim is telling the truth.

For example, when the police question a murder suspect, they may find that he has cuts or scratches on his face, consistent with the type of wounds that the perpetrator would incur in that sort of crime (perhaps because someone with a knife fought back). When asked where he got them, nine times out of ten he will say he Cut Himself Shaving. Likewise, a guy who beat someone up will often say that the victim «fell down some stairs» or «ran into a door» whenever being questioned by the cops. There are also stories of corrupt or excessively violent police themselves using the same sort of line to explain the injuries they inflicted on a suspect during questioning.

A subversion is a character who really did walk into a door, but everyone assumes they’re covering.

In anime and manga, this trope is usually just explained by all characters as «I fell,» and keeping it unspecific. This leads to wondering by the characters, as by the reader, «Fell on what?»

Also frequently employed by a Super Hero when he must preserve his Secret Identity by explaining away wounds sustained in battle. It may also be used by someone attempting to cover-up Self-Harm or someone being abused at home (in which case «I fell down the stairs» is a common phrase).

Another variant, found in military fiction and military science fiction, has two men — often an officer and an NCO — engage in a brawl in a nice, quiet, out-of-the-way spot to settle some point of honor, with the unspoken agreement being that each will cover for the other’s injuries (frequently by claiming to have been practicing hand-to-hand combat techniques). This is because in many of these settings, striking a superior officer, regardless of the reason, is an offense worthy of court-martial and with very heavy penalties.

For the lethal version, see The Coroner Doth Protest Too Much. If he really did cut himself shaving, it’s There Will Be Toilet Paper. A sister trope to Bluffing the Authorities and Abuse Mistake, both of which it can overlap with. Not to be confused with Dangerously Close Shave, which is about the barber cutting other people.