Dude in Distress: Difference between revisions

* In one arc of the ''[[Soul Eater]]'' manga, {{spoiler|Death the Kidd seems to be playing this role after a [[Collector of the Strange]] decides to add him to his collection. He manages to break out by himself, but only after a fight with Black Star which snaps him out of insanity.}}

* Parodied with North Italy of ''[[Axis Powers Hetalia]]'', who often gets in trouble and derails his partners' plans.

** This reaches a new level of absurdity when Italy needs rescuing from falling into a pit dug by "that jackass Britain". It wasn't an elaborate or hidden trap, it was just an ordinary hole dug in the ground.

** His brother South Italy plays it a bit straighter as a child, when Turkey kidnaps him. His boss/caretaker Spain goes [[Papa Wolf]] on Turkey. In return, Spain [[Ill Boy|falls gravely sick]] in another strip and the adult South Italy searches for a "cure", even having recourse to [[The Mafia]] to try help him.

** [[Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Abridged Series|"Mokuba was supposed to be there with me, but he had been kidnapped for the fiftieth time that week so his seat was empty."]]

*** [[Little Kuriboh]] even saw fit to put together a '''''montage''''' of a few scenes in which he was kidnapped.

** Astonishingly averted in ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! R]]'', where nobody even ''considers'' grabbing the kid.

* [[The Ace|Portgas D. Ace]] from ''[[One Piece]]'' is ''definitely'' this trope. Except that his younger brother Luffy is the one rescuing him, not a girl. {{spoiler|Luffy succeeded in freeing him. Unfortunately, it was in vain as soon Ace took a lava punch from Admiral Akainu to save Luffy and actually ''[[Not Quite Saved Enough|died]]''.}}

* [[Indiana Jones]]. Tied to a light pole in ''[[Raiders of the Lost Ark]]'', tied to a chair in ''[[Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade|The Last Crusade]]'', kidnapped and stuffed in a car trunk ''and'' tied to a chair in ''[[Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull]]''...

** Practically Lampshaded with this exchange between Marion and Indy about them both being kidnapped

'''Marion:''' Well, you didn't do any better yourself. }}

* In the first [[The Matrix|Matrix]] movie, Agent Smith and a few other agents ambushed Morpheus's crew in an old building. The rest of the crew (except for the dearly departed Mouse) escape, but Morpheus was abducted. With him in his custody, Agent Smith attempted to interrogate him into giving them the codes to get into Zion's mainframe. Luckely, Neo and Trinity were on their way to rescue him.

** In ''Thuvia, Maid of Mars'', Carthoris and Kar Komak are captured first by green men and then by great apes.

** In ''The Chessman of Mars'', Turan is captured by the city of Matador. Tara tries to shield him by denying knowledge of him.

"It was to save my brave panthan," she said in a low voice.'' }}

** In ''The Master Mind of Mars'', Ulysses Paxton rescues some men from [[Faux Death]], and they all escape the [[Mad Scientist]]. Later, one of them is captured in the city where he had been betrayed and threatened with [[Human Sacrifice]]; Ulysses rescues him.

* The title character in the show ''[[Chuck]]'', featuring a hapless electronics-store worker who gets thrown into the world of spies and danger. He tends to get thrown into car trunks quite a bit, forcing him to await rescue from his [[Action Girl]] partner.

** Casey and Sarah also get captured a lot and need to be rescued. More than one would expect, given that they are the trained professional elite spies and Chuck is the schmuck they're supposed to be guarding, but he ''is'' the title character... And he [[Running Gag|never stays in the car when they tell him to...]]

* ''[[24|Twenty Four]]'''s Jack Bauer gets captured and tied up several times a season. Of course, as mentioned above, it's usually to prove how much of a [[Badass]] he is when he gets free. <!-- [[TheKimberly His daughter]] is still a moron. -->

* [[MacGyver]] is legendary for this, with escape skills surpassing even those of Jack Bauer -- and sometimes Houdini.

** Oh, Spike does this all the damn time. In particular; a good chunk of season 7 features him chained to a wall, at least 10 episodes on-again-off-again chained.

** This trope was also [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] in the [[Musical Episode]] "Once More, With Feeling". In the opening number, Buffy rescues a tied-up young man with a distinct resemblance to Fabio, then brushes him off:

'''Buffy:''' Whatever. }}

* This seems to be a very popular trope in the Whedonverse. In ''[[Firefly]]'', Wash and Mal get tied up and tortured by Niska and are saved by [[Action Girl|Zoe]] and the crew.

* ''[[NCIS]]'' also has a designated "damsel" in Tony DiNozzo, though he usually rescues himself.

* Rimmer in the ''[[Red Dwarf]]'' episode "Terrorform":

* The boys of ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' invoke this trope fairly often. Daniel winds up kidnapped disproportionately often in the first season or two. He's also the [[Woobie]], so...

* ''[[Criminal Minds]]'': Spencer Reid. He ends up separated from the rest of the team and in danger very frequently, especially in early seasons. In one such instance he was actually held hostage and ended up addicted to painkillers, he's also been caught in a cult compound while investigating child abuse (along with another agent), he and Hotch were trapped in a cell with a serial killer during the guard's shift change, and in one episode he didn't start out in danger, but ended up in it during an attempt to rescue the female agent trapped on a train with an unstable man.

** This has gotten so bad, Matthew Gray Gubler (Reid's actor) has commented on it:

* Intrepid reporter Mike Axford in the ''[[The Green Hornet]]'' is kidnapped and held as some kind of leverage tool on the Hornet on pretty much every third episode. Lampshaded lightly in "Eat, Drink, and Be Dead" at the closer when Mike insisted on a raise after being kidnapped yet again.

* Despite his status as [[God Mode Sue]] for the series, Tommy Oliver from ''[[Power Rangers]]'' is a magnet for getting his powers stolen/getting [[Brainwashed and Crazy]]/turning into a [[Sealed Good in a Can]]. Currently, his most egregious brush with this trope happens in ''[[Power Rangers Dino Thunder]]'', where he is frozen in amber, stuck in his Black Dino Ranger form, turned invisible, and ''put into a deathly coma, '''all in that order, in the course of 15 episodes'''''.

** In ''[[Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger]]'', it happens pretty frequently to [[Sixth Ranger]] Tetsu.

* ''[[The Prisoner]]'' episode "The Girl Who Was Death" plays inexplicably like a loopy spy-adventure movie. Number Six is eventually caught in the villain's lair and is bound to a chair.

'''No. 6:''' I must remember that next time I go climbing with one. }}

* Will Zimmerman from ''[[Sanctuary]]'' constantly gets kidnapped or stuck in a situation where Helen Magnus (and sometimes her team as well) generally has to come to his rescue. So much so that some fans have even dubbed him the "Dude in Distress".

** And apparently it happened once to Bill: Why am I tied to this table? [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20050527 And where are my PANTS?!]

* Lampshaded in ''[[The Order of the Stick|Order of the Stick]]'' [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0590.html here].

'''Daigo:''' Yes, it's a big day for gender equality all around. ''(glancing at his pregnant wife who has just wiped the floor with a whole squad of ninjas)'' }}

* ''[[Erfworld]]'': Ansom. Jillian just ''knows'' it.

* ''[[Bob and George]]'': [http://www.bobandgeorge.com/archives/010902 Bob] and [http://www.bobandgeorge.com/archives/010919 Mike]

** And George [http://www.bobandgeorge.com/archives/020114 here], [http://www.bobandgeorge.com/archives/020517 not quite escaping here], and [http://www.bobandgeorge.com/archives/020601 back].

* In ''[[Code Lyoko]]'', the "[[Distressed Damsel]]" role tends to go to Aelita, who doesn't reach [[Action Girl]] status until around [[Took a Level In Badass|Season Three]], or [[Action Girl|Yumi]] in some sort of random [[Running Gag]]. However, there are also many episodes that involve [[Non-Action Guy|Jérémie]] being the one in trouble, usually with electrocuting or trying to electrocute him. (And there was that one time where XANA sent one of his specters to [[Nightmare Fuel|clog his airways and suffocate him]].) This really makes the most sense, since when you're [[AI Is a Crapshoot|a computer program]], the most dangerous foe is [[The Smart Guy|the guy who]] [[Mission Control|controls]] [[Voice with an Internet Connection|the computer]].

* [[He-Man and the Masters of the Universe]] in the ''[[She-Ra: Princess of Power]]'' movie. Let's have [[The Nostalgia Chick]] talk about it, shall we?

* Sadlygrove, the [[Idiot Hero]] from ''[[Wakfu]]'', thinks of himself as a [[Knight in Shining Armor]] and thus is on the lookout for [[Distressed Damsel|Distressed Damsels]] to rescue. This is turned on its head in episode 4, where he's lured in a cursed castle by the four "Ugly Princesses". Naturally, he ends up as the Distressed Dude to be rescued by his friends.

* Mark Lily from ''[[Ugly Americans]]'' manages to get himself into all kinds of horrifying and distressful situations.