Short Cuts Make Long Delays/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Basic Trope: A character takes a shortcut, only to get lost.
  • Played Straight: The Tropers are on a road trip. Bob decides to take the Scenic Route...and ends up getting the family lost.
  • Exaggerated: The Tropers wind up stranded out in the middle of the desert.
  • Inverted: Bob takes the Scenic Route, and it gets them to their destination in less time than it would have taken to stay on the main roads.
  • Justified: Bob is too proud to ask directions when he gets lost.
    • The Tropers had to complete some silly Fetch Quest or go see some cheesy tourist trap on the way.
    • Bob had to go off the main route to find a rest stop because one of the kids had a Potty Emergency.
    • There is a possible shortcut going that way, but it's either closed due to road construction or requires several turns and Bob keeps missing them.
  • Subverted: Bob stays on main roads in populated areas.
  • Double Subverted: But he takes a wrong turn and gets lost.
  • Deconstructed:
  • Reconstructed:
  • Parodied: The car is seen in front of stock scenery of Mt. Everest, the Pyramids, a beach, the surface of the moon, etc.
  • Lampshaded: "Christopher Columbus didn't need directions, and neither do I!"
  • Averted: Bob does not take any shortcuts.
  • Enforced: It's the Journey That Counts, Idiot Plot
  • Invoked: Bob decides to take a shortcut, even throwing the map out the window.
  • Defied: Bob is Genre Savvy enough to know that this will cause problems, so he stays on main roads.
  • Discussed:
  • Conversed:
  • Played For Laughs: Almost always is.
  • Played For Drama: The Tropers have to stay in a creepy little town with a Dark and Troubled Past involving a deranged killer.
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Short_Cuts_Make_Long_Delays/Playing_With?oldid=942354"