Help! Help! I'm Trapped in an X Factory!

"Help us . . . R&D under mental domination of alien brain in jar . . . only chance . . . Gleemax's blatant disregard for flavor text . . . send help"

- Gleemax flavor text

Someone is trapped, or forced to work against his will, in some kind of facility that produces publicly available goods (such as fortune cookie fortunes, or candybar wrappings). He proceeds to use them as a means of communicating with the outside world and asking for help.

In comedic versions, it's usually just a throwaway gag, and the fate of the mysterious victim isn't ever alluded to.

The meme at the heart of this trope dates all the way back to the middle of the nineteenth century, as seen in the December 23, 1848 issue of Scientific American, where it was used very seriously:

"Singular Affair Some two weeks since a merchant in Bangor, Me, in emptying a tea chest, found in the bottom a snuff box containing a five dollar bill on the Dover, N. H. Bank, and attached to it, the following epistle written on a piece of paper of the quality generally used by the Chinese in putting up tea in pound packages. Pekin, Dec. 1846. ''Dear Mother—I am a prisoner in a Tea House, and have been for six years. I wish you would go to Washington and get our government to interfere and obtain my release. I enclose you a five dollor note; it was presented to me by an American gentleman ; it is of no use to me, but it may be to you. Edward Lovell. Directed to Mrs. Nancy Lovell, Boston, Mass."

The earliest joking use that has been found for "I'm being held prisoner at [a Chinese food preparation place]" is from 1955 (listed here).

Comic Books

 * DC Comics seems to have been fond of this trope, at least in the 1960s. For instance:
 * Detective Comics #383 has a story which (despite the cover) happens when Robin gets a fortune cookie message reading "Help! I'm a prisoner in a Chinese Restaurant!"
 * DC's Swing with Scooter no. 9, October–November 1967, has a similar rescue story kicked off by finding a message in a cookie.

Literature

 * A message in Hogfather is in a Christmas Cracker and says "Help help help Ive fallen in the crakker machine I cant keep runin on this roller please get me ou-". Someone says it's the same old mottos as when they were kids.
 * In Goldfinger (the original novel) James Bond leaves a note on the underside of the toilet on a plane, telling of Goldfinger's plot and saying that delivery of the note to Felix Leiter of the CIA will result in a reward, hoping that the cleaning crew will find it; but doesn't know whether or not it got found & delivered, or thrown out, or found by the bad guys.
 * In The Tightrope Walker by Dorothy Gilman, the plot starts when the owner of a second-hand store finds a "Please help" message hidden in one of the objects in her store.
 * In 1964 comedian Alan King wrote a book he entitled Help! I'm A Prisoner In A Chinese Bakery.
 * Golden age SF writer Cyril Kornbluth wrote a satirical story entitled "MS. Found in a Chinese Fortune Cookie" in 1957 which clearly invokes this trope by name.

Live Action TV
"Dave: "Help, I'm being held prisoner in a complaint box", which is actually kinda funny."
 * The "...Chinese Fortune Cookie Factory" version was used on Get Smart.
 * News Radio, Dave is reading cards from a complaint box.

"Frankie: Help I'm trapped in a sign making factory."
 * One Mock the Week Scenes We'd Like to See round gave us Unlikely Things to see on a Round Sign to which Frankie Boyle provided us with...

Newspaper Comics

 * Comes up in Peanuts during a Story Arc where Linus's mom leaves him inspirational notes in his Brown Bag Lunch: one reads "Help! I'm being held prisoner in a School Lunch factory!"

Tabletop Games

 * The flavor text on the humorous Magic: The Gathering "Gleemax" card provides this page's flavor quote.

Video Games

 * Fairy Godmother Tycoon has a story part where someone finds a wig—there's a little note attached. "Please help. Kidnapped. Forced to make wigs. Rapunzel."

Web Comics
"Bristlecone:, you are familiar with the old joke, "help, I'm being held prisoner in a Chinese fortune cookie factory", yes? Bristlecone: There was a repeated steganogram in the data you sent me. "Help, I'm being held prisoner in a "."
 * The eye chart in the first panel of this Gunnerkrigg Court guest comic.
 * Has been parodied twice in xkcd. First there was the Pi Equals comic, and the second was in the Alt Text of Exploits of a Mom.
 * xkcd fans like variations of this too.
 * Schlock Mercenary had AI version:
 * Of course. It's a classic.

Web Original

 * Keyboard Art on Fake Science.
 * When The Onion covered The Gap's 'For Kids By Kids' clothing line, one of the garments said "help me".

Western Animation

 * Looney Tunes: The Daffy Duck short "China Jones" parodies the "being held in a Chinese bakery" one..
 * The episode titles the first part of Robot Chicken's fourth season form the message "Help me. I'm trapped in a DVD factory. They took my thumbs. Two weeks without food. Tell my mom I love her, but not in that way. Love, Maurice PS: Yes, in that way." In a twist to this trope, the second half's episodes titles make up the factory's response: "Dear Consumer, we are a humble factory. Maurice was caught unionizing our labor. President Hu forbids it! Due to constraints of time and budget, the ramblings of Maurice cannot be erased, so sorry. Please do not notify our contractors. Especially the animal Keith Crofford!"
 * There was a Madeline animated movie where Madeline ended up in a sweatshop making lace, and she and the other girls attempted to knot lace patterns that spelled out a message for help.

Real Life (presumably)

 * "Help! I'm stuck in this ATM". The technician had accidentally locked himself inside the ATM room and realized he had left his phone in his truck. He scrawled notes on scraps of paper asking people to call his boss and fed them out with their transactions.  Most customers thought it was a prank, until someone finally called the number.
 * An entirely straight variation, even with a Chinese factory: [//www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/tesco-halts-christmas-cards-china-after-slave-chinese-prison-factory-pleads-help Tesco Halts Christmas Cards From China After 'Slave' Laborer In Prison Factory Begs For Help]. A reporter who was previously a prisoner in the same prison investigated and says it's real, while the Chinese government says it's fake.


 * By the way, I'm trapped here, and they are forcing me to type up trope entries! Send help!