Duct Tape for Everything: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

{{quote|''"Duct Tape is like [[Star Wars|The Force]] - it has a light side, a dark side, and it holds the universe together."''|'''Carl Zwanzig'''}}

 

 

This trope is about the versatility, ubiquitousness, and downright ''usefulness'' of the substance known as "duct tape". A plastic adhesive tape, usually black, grey or silver in colour, originally created to seal ammunition boxes in World War II, but whose usefulness is apparent to anybody who's ever had a breakage of ''any'' kind that has to be temporarily held together. It is the first cousin to, but distinct from, gaffer tape, which is less adhesive and designed to be removable. A military version also exists, known as hundred-mile-an-hour tape in the US, which is even stronger and ''more'' adhesive than duct tape, and typically comes in some shade of green or brown.

 

== [[Film]] ==

* In ''[[Gran Torino]]'', [[Clint Eastwood]]'s character claims that a man can do 50% of the jobs around the home with three tools: a can of WD 40, a pair of vise grips and a roll of duct tape.

* ''[[Terminator]] 2''. John Connor uses duct tape to gag a captured guard in the Cyberdyne Systems building.

* The jury-rigged CO 2 filtration system in ''[[Apollo 13]]'', which was [[Truth in Television]], as shown under Real Life.

* In ''Alaska'' the kids fix the canoe they find with the liberal application of Duct tape.

* ''[[Right At Your Door]]'', in which the main character seals his home this way. {{spoiler|This turns out to be the worst thing he could have done, as the duct tape works too well and seals contaminated air inside his house, where the warmth and lack of circulation allow it to multiply to lethal levels.}}

* In ''[[Major League]]'', the wing of the Indians' broken-down plane is sealed with duct tape.

== [[Literature]] ==

* A very distinctive duct tape (a prison had it custom made in a unique colour to stop employees stealing it) provides a vital clue in the Patricia Cornwall novel ''The Body Farm''.

* One book of the [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]] mentioned the universe-wide joke that everything was held together with space tape, from starfighters to the Imperial Palace on Coruscant.

** Duct tape ''is'' The Force. It has a light side and a dark side, and it holds the universe together.

** The novel also says that duct tape was used for fly paper, holding up baby diapers, house repairs, and broken bones. And in one of the final scenes, {{spoiler|after Cap is sent back to the commune, the only thing left in his room is a page from his report on what he thought the most useful invention in the world was, duct tape.}}

* In the [[John Ringo]] ''[[Into the Looking Glass]]'' novels, "Spacetape" is used by the Marines and Navy aboard the Blade. It is superior to Duct tape in that it is usable in a vacuum and won't dry out under extreme heat/ cold. The drawback? It costs upwards of $100,000.00 dollars a roll!

* Subverted in ''[[The Dresden Files]]'' where Harry, having been captured and bound with duct tape, reflects that if it were that good at holding people then the police would use it instead of handcuffs. He escapes, of course. Although its used in Blood Rites and in Small Favor.

** Jared Kincaid, [[Crazy Prepared]] [[Gun For Hire]], has a special clip on his tactical vest for a roll of duct tape.

* In [[Jack Campbell]]'s [[The Lost Fleet]]: Beyond The Frontier: ''Invincible'' humanity finally makes friends with aliens for the Universal Fixing Substance: Duct Tape.

 

** In one episode, a class of kids around 10 years old go visit the station ("Broadcasters of the Future", they're not [[Time Travel|time travelers]] though). Every member of the cast is assigned to take care of one kid and show him around the station. Joe uses the day to show the boy assigned to him the many uses of duct tape (including taping the boy to his back for easier transport).

** In the ''Titanic'' episode, Joe claims that the hull is made entirely out of duct tape.

** And in the series finale, {{spoiler|Miles uses it to fix the hydraulics of a passenger jetliner.}}

{{quote| '''Miles:''' I don't believe in a lot of things, but I do believe in duct tape.}}

* In Season Two of [[Discovery Channel]] Canada's semi-reality show ''Canada's Worst Handyman'', one of the contestants kept falling back on duct tape for everything. The producers were very much annoyed at him.

** The character from the first episode on the receiving end of Michael's duct tape strategy returns in season 3 as a client. Throughout the episode, he suggests that Michael can resolve the situation by doing something cool with duct tape. Sure enough, midway through Michael ends up using duct tape [[And Some Other Stuff|(among other things)]] to turn a microwave into a bomb.

** Although that one was an aversion: they put velcro-strip collars on the ducks instead.

** And later they made an entire hour about its many uses. Including, lifting a car, patching a leaky boat, making a boat, sealing a potato gun, and finally ''making a fully functional cannon''.

** Towards the end of the Duct Tape Island episode, Jamie basically summed the trope up by saying that duct tape wasn't a perfect solution to anything, but with some creativity, it proved an ''adequate'' solution to just about everything.

** It should be made clear that the Mythbusters did rate survival on a desert island under realistic conditions (other than the duct tape supply) to be highly plausible, mostly ''because'' they resorted to duct tape in 90% of their survival situations. However, an effectively infinite supply of duct tape was assumed (approximately a whole shipped crate, if not an entire shipment), as well as a water supply like a spring or stream.

* Having his dad's chair in the living room is made even worse for ''[[Frasier]]'' because his dad uses duct tape to patch up any damage to said the chair.

* In ''[[Greek]]'', Rusty is duct taped to a wall during the first season episode ''War and Peace'' as part of a Kappa Tau/Omega Chi prank war.

* On ''[[The Amazing Race]]'', Season 16 had Steve & Allie crash their front right fender at a curb. When loose parts were making an awful scraping sound while driving, Steve used some Duct Tape (that his wife packed him "just in case") and were able to tape up the loose pieces and motor along to a respectable finish.

 

* Part of comedian Tim Allen's routine was how every maintenance problem could be solved with duct tape. The catch phrase was "Have a problem with _____? Duct it!".

* "Duct tape is preferred for gagging their victims by 4 out of 5 kidnappers."

** Even though in reality, it is EXTREMELY easy to free your mouth from duct tape by repeatedly scrunching and unscrunching your face.

*** The exception of this is the rare occasion when a movie gets it right and the kidnapper wraps the duct tape completely around the victim's head.

 

== [[Tabletop RPG]] ==

* You can purchase duct tape (by a different name) in the ''[[Star Wars|Star Wars Roleplaying Game: Saga Edition]]'' RPG. Unfortunately, it doesn't give a bonus on Mechanics checks.

* In ''D20 Modern'', one of the magic items you can get is a roll of duct tape that instantly repairs anything broken you use it on. Essentially a potion of cure wounds for inanimate objects. Normal duct tape is one of the cheapest items on the equipment list.

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

** This really becomes funny in the cut scenes for the Combo Weapons. You see Chuck from behind, fiddling on the work bench and you hear the distinctive sound of duct tape being pulled from the roll, while he should be nailing up a [[Batter Up|baseball bat]].

** There's also an achievement called "Duct Tape FTW".

{{quote| "My brother died in the war. His multimillion dollar helicopter was shot down by a grenade launcher held together with duct tape." }}

* In ''Tony Hawks Underground'', at the beginning of the game [[The Rival]] says of your skateboard: "Looks like that thing's held together with duct tape."

** There's a Duct Tape item for your avatar on [[Gaia Online]], too. One pose, called "I FIX IT!!!" has your avatar duct-taped to the screen.

* ''[[Doom|DOOM 3]]'' was a vastly different game from its predecessors in that you actually needed a flashlight to see in the dark tunnels of Mars. The problem was that you could only carry either it or a gun at one time. The solution? The "Duct tape mod", which attaches a flashlight to most weapons. The author says the mod is justified and not a cheat, beacuse it's wholly illogical that one shouldn't be able to find a roll of duct tape in a space station of the future.

* The Panther King in ''Conker's Bad Fur Day'' apparently duct taped the Professor to his table as a substitute for the missing leg at some point. When the Professor goes to work on fixing the table, the King says, "I wouldn't want to have to get the duct tape out again."

* One of the "repair item" sound effects in ''[[Fallout|Fallout 3]]'' is - you guessed it - the sound of duct tape being ripped off a roll.

** Quoth the recipe for Weapon Repair Kits; "1x Duct Tape, 1x Scrap Electronics, 2x Scrap Metal, 1x Wonderglue, 1x Wrench"

** Also in the same game the perk '[[MacGyvering|Jury-Rigging]]' shows Vault Boy duct taping two unrelated weapons together. (I think they are an assault rifle and a shotgun) He uses a lot of duct tape.

{{quote| '''Erika:''' I, Erika Furudo, have duct tape!!."}}

{{quote| '''Eggman''': "Please refrain from peeling off the special space-age polymer holding the starship together. [[Blatant Lies|It may look and feel like duct tape, but it's not.]] [[Hesitation Equals Dishonesty|It's called... space... tape.]] Very advanced stuff. Thank you."}}

 

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* In the parodic fantasy webcomic ''[[Nodwick]]'', magical duct tape is an essential component of healing spells, up to and including resurrection of the dead.

** I'm not even sure it's magical at all.

*** No more magical than normal, anyway.

** Also, Sam's scarf is at one point [http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff900/fv00874.htm replaced by one made of duct tape]. Also, when a robot's leg has just been repaired by welding, a character [http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff1700/fc01643.htm remarks]: "You should put some duct tape on it. Repairs never seem complete without duct tape."

** When Florence discovers just how much duct-tape has gone into the repairs of The Savage Chicken, [http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff600/fv00575.htm she comments that she hopes it's not too late... because "Power corrupts, but duct-tape corrupts absolutely."]

* Subverted in the title text of [http://xkcd.com/478/ this] ''xkcd'', where duct tape is insufficient for the character, as it doesn't make [[Most Wonderful Sound|"that 'kaCHUNK' noise."]]

* Pretty much the only thing keeping [[Butt Monkey|Riku]] together in ''[[Ansem Retort]]'' is duct tape. [[Jerkass|Zexion]] ''could'' fix Riku better. He just doesn't want to.

* ''d20monkey'' on the certain "[http://www.d20monkey.com/2010/10/22/stuck-on-you/ Item Creation System]" of ''[[Dead Rising 2]]''.

{{quote| ...You just duct-taped chainsaws to a wheelchair?<br />

Why not? The high-level characters [[MacGyvering|make shit like that all the time]]. }}

{{quote| '''Unwinder:''' Doc, pick a masculine thing to learn about, or I'll pick one for you.<br />

'''Dr. Minivan:''' Well, I've heard good things about using duct tape for various tasks.<br />

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* In an episode of ''[[Megas XLR]]'', the titular mecha's photonic stabilizer is damaged, which could wind up with Megas exploding big time. After spending the whole episode looking for a replacement part, and in the middle of a fight ''for'' the replacement part that was [[Explosive Overclocking|pushing Megas to its limits]], a cry of "DUCK!" [[Eureka Moment|inspires Coop]] to wrap the damaged stabilizer in <s>duct</s> duck tape. Seconds later, Megas is able to fight at full power. "When in doubt, duck it!"

* In ''[[The Replacements]]'', Riley and Tasumi met when Riley used duct tape to mend an embarrassing rip in Tasumi's armour. Riley explains that her dad makes her carry a roll with her at all times as duct tape "can fix anything".

** Wallets and purses. You can buy these pre-made or easily download instructions on making your own.

* Silk tape (Durapore in the US), which has a fairly heavy fabric base and much stronger adhesive than paper or plastic tapes, is the healthcare professional's answer to duct tape, with the added bonus of being nontoxic and hypo-allergenic. Go to any hospital and I guarantee you'll see at least one IV pole, vital-signs monitor or bed control that's been "repaired" with carefully applied silk tape.

** Similarly, when engineers came up with a system for doing CPR in space involving harnesses and what have you, astronauts balked, said it was too complicated and that they could do it with duct tape.

* The US military has a stronger version called "100 mph" or "high speed" tape; both because it's said to be able to [[Urban Legends|hold a part on a Jeep at 100 mph]], and because "high speed" is Army slang for excellence. Army duct tape is typically olive drab or medium brown in color instead of silver, for obvious reasons.