Dead TV Remote Gag

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

GASP! The batteries in the remote control for the TV are dead! The greatest horror of all befalls our hero. Having to actually go up to the TV and change the channels manually! DUN DUN DUN!, or at least that's what your Plucky Sidekick, unaware of the seriousness of the situation, suggested. Note that many modern sets have either no, or extremely minimal, on-board controls, so a dead remote can mean a very considerable loss of functionality.

When the trope is Played for Laughs, An Aesop about being lazy or about spending too much time watching TV may occur. Be on the lookout for a gun being used as a substitute for a remote. Compare Lost the TV Remote

Examples of Dead TV Remote Gag include:


Film

  • In Toy Story 2, numerous toys are watching TV in Andy's room when an advert for the toy shop advertised by the evil chicken voiced by Wayne Knight comes on and everybody panics (because he kidnapped Woody) and the batteries fall out. Most of the toys have no idea how to use batteries.
    • Doubles as a Continuity Nod to a similar situation in the first movie. Instead of a remote, it's a walkie-talkie that loses it batteries, and Woody is the only one who knows how to use them.
  • This trope is how the plot of Pleasantville is caused to happen.

Live Action TV

  • The Pilot for The Sarah Silverman Program (though it was actually aired as the last episode of the season) "Batteries" found Sarah scrambling around town for batteries for her remote so she wouldn't have to watch a telethon for sick children. This was after she taped dollar bills to the screen.
  • There was a slightly different TV Remote batteries gag on Coupling. Steve checks the remote to find there aren't any batteries in it at all, points this out to new girlfriend Susan, and is bemused when she goes into her bedside table to get them back... when those are dead too, she opens up a drawer to reveal several huge multipacks of spare batteries.
  • In a bit filmed for Late Night with David Letterman, the gang at Cheers are watching TV and the remote is dead. They all decide that's OK, they'll just watch whatever's on next. Cue Late Show' s Opening Montage. Everybody runs out the door of the bar, including Sam.

Newspaper Comics

Webcomics

Western Animation

  • Phineas and Ferb "Perry Lays An Egg": Candace recounts how going five feet for popcorn is all right, but five feet to change the channel is too much.
  • The Dilbert TV show had an episode that was kicked off when Dogbert complained the remote wasn't working, and Dilbert told him to change the battery. The left one. Also, he bought a battery on the way home from work the day before because he sensed this coming.
    • to bring some context into this, this was a demonstration of Dilbert's "knack" with electronics which he goes on to lose later in the episode.
  • Used in The Simpsons, contrasting Bart and Homer's desire to avoid watching a space shuttle launch with their panic over the complex technology of the TV remote not working (the batteries have fallen out.)
    • There was another instance in one of the "Treehouse of Horror" episodes in which Bart crams a stick of glowing radioactive waste into the remote (Marge had taken the batteries to curb the kids excessive viewing) and with a push of the On button sends Bart and Lisa into an "Itchy & Scratchy" cartoon.

Real Life

  • Some flatscreen TVs don't have buttons, so the remote is the only option. God help you if the batteries run out, or worse, you lose the remote.
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