Short Cuts Make Long Delays: Difference between revisions
m
→Film
Looney Toons (talk | contribs) (M*A*S*H pothole) |
m (→Film) |
||
| (4 intermediate revisions by 2 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{trope}}
{{quote|''"Well, we're here! Now [[Let Us Never Speak of This Again|let us never speak of the shortcut again]]."''
|'''Homer''', ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]''}}
{{quote|''"So, this guy's shortcut home is through [[Dracula|the Carpathian Mountains]]?"''
|'''Crow''', ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]''}}
Typically [[An Aesop]] against cheating. All the regular characters are on a [[Road Trip]] or some other [[The Quest|quest]]. One character suggests they take a shortcut: sure, it [[Lost World|may not be on the maps]], but he knows the route like the back of his hand. Besides, it will shave a few hours off the trip, and be all-around more interesting than the [[Scenic Route|boring old interstate]]! Persuaded, the other characters agree to take the shortcut.
Line 15 ⟶ 17:
{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* Occurred in ''[[Spirited Away]]'' when the father suggest they take a shortcut through a forest, this results in the family getting [[Trapped in Another World]].
Line 21 ⟶ 23:
* "[[Little Red Riding Hood]]" is probably the Ur-example. She was ''told'' to stay on the path, but she just had to go and take a shortcut through the woods... and the rest is vaguely-Freudian history.
== [[Comic
* Every time [[Usagi Yojimbo|Usagi Miyamoto]] takes "one of Gen's short cuts" he winds up stumbling into a dastardly plot.
Line 28 ⟶ 30:
* ''[[It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World]]'' was one Long Delay after another. For example, Phil Silvers' character takes a shortcut on a dirt road at the advice of a local kid, only to find that the road goes through a river. He attempts to drive through anyway and loses his car.
* Pretty much the whole point of ''[[Rat Race]]'', in which six different people (often with family/sidekicks) try to be the first to get to a town in the next state. [[Hilarity Ensues]] as increasingly improbable circumstances slow them down - the helicopter pilot discovers her boyfriend cheating on her and runs out of fuel in the ensuing vengeful maneuvers, a "helpful" woman provides shortcut directions to one driver that sends them over the edge of a cliff because they didn't buy a squirrel, and so on.
** Of course, the movie was just
* From ''[[Road Trip]]'' wherein the shortcut leads over a [[Broken Bridge]].
{{quote|Of course it's difficult, it's a short-cut. If it was easy it would just be "the way."}}
* ''[[The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou]]'': who '''didn't''' see disaster coming when Steve took a shortcut through [[Tempting Fate|Unprotected Waters]]?
* [[Exploited Trope|Exploited]] in the opening minutes of ''[[White Christmas]]'' when General Waverly instructs a knowing corpsman to "take the short cut" when driving his replacement back to headquarters, so that the men in his command can finish their Christmas celebration before being turned out for a full inspection.
* Also exploited in ''[[Holiday Inn]]'', when Jim pays driver Gus to keep Linda from making it to the Inn for the Fourth of July show. When Gus takes an unexpected turn and Linda objects, Gus says "Short cut". When he makes another, he just tells her "Short cut... to the short cut." He ends up deliberately driving into a pond.
== [[Literature]] ==
Line 39 ⟶ 43:
*** Even later, he successfully takes the grandmother of all shortcuts through the Paths of the Dead.
* A children's storybook based upon the ''[[Berenstain Bears]]'' features a Bear Scout troop hiking up a mountain. While the group take the longer way according to their map, Father Bear takes a shortcut—admittedly, it's a shorter route, but it is beset with [[Never Say "Die"|nigh-deadly]] hazards.
* In ''[[The Pilgrim's
* In the second ''[[Warrior Cats]]'' story arc, a lone cat named Purdy offers to show the traveling Clan cats a way though the city rather than having the cats waste time traveling around it. He claims the whole time that he knows where he's going, but the Clan cats know it's not the quickest route (at one point they realize they've been traveling in the ''wrong'' direction all day; they're supposed to be heading ''toward'' the sunset). It also results in Feathertail nearly getting captured by a Twoleg and Tawnypelt being bitten badly by a rat.
== [[Live
* One episode of ''[[The Mighty Boosh]]'' has Vince suggesting a shortcut to Howard that leads them both into the middle of nowhere. When Vince explains himself as having tried to follow the long red road on the map, Howard rightly points out that it's actually a raspberry bootlace.
* Appears and is [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] in ''[[The Tenth Kingdom]]''. There are two roads leading to Wendell's castle, and the pair of unlikely heroes are on foot: they must choose whether to take the long and pretty path or the short and scary path. "Virginia, don't you think there's a chance that it's going ''around'' something? But... but one path has trees, and the other... argh!" They take the scary path.
** The fact this detour [[Because Destiny Says So|turns out to be necessary]] in order for Virginia to obtain the <s>[[Plot Coupon]]</s> poisoned comb so that she can deal out the suitably [[Hoist by His Own Petard|
* From the ''[[M*A*S*H (television)|M*A*S*H]]'' episode "The Yalu Brick Road'':
{{quote|'''Hawkeye''': I thought you said this was a shortcut!
Line 60 ⟶ 64:
** Although, [[Path of Most Resistance|there's some nice loot and XP along the way.]]
* In [[Neopets|Neo Quest II]], one NPC in Act II remarks: "You know the saying: the shortest distance between two points is a straight line? Well, the longest distance between two points is a shortcut." Luckily for you, the player characters are not required to take such shortcuts.
* A case of [[Schmuck Bait]] involving this occurs in ''[[Might and Magic|Might and Magic 6]]''. In the small town in the west part of the Mire of the Damned, someone tells you about a path through the mountains that gets you to the east part (where there's the Circus, an Inn you need to get to, and a road to Freehaven) quicker. However, at one spot on this path, a very large flock of Harpy Hags (difficult monsters who can all cast Mass Curse) appears and ambushes you. Unfortunately, even if you know about this, you have to come here and trigger the ambush to solve the Obelisk Puzzle and get the most powerful spells in the game.
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* In ''[[Nip and Tuck]]'', Gus takes a shortcut to win a race he's losing—and ends up right in the middle of a demolition derby {{spoiler|which reduces his truck to so much scrap metal}}. A long delay indeed!
* In
== [[Web Original]] ==
Line 70 ⟶ 75:
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* ''[[Cars]]'': Here it's not taking a short cut that gets Lightning McQueen stranded in Radiator Springs but his
* ''[[Finding Nemo]]'': On their way to Sydney, Marlin and Dory have to cross a trench. Dory has been told to swim through it, not over it, but Marlin insists that going over it is safer. They go over it, and end up surrounded by jellyfish.
* A recurring plot element and running joke in the [[Rupert Bear]] cartoon series is that all of Bill's "short cuts" invariably lead to some sort of strange adventure, but never where they wanted to go in the first place. In one episode, the two decided to split up and make a race out of it. Naturally, this time it's Rupert taking the proper route who finds himself in a land of adventure, which implies that it's not the shortcuts that lead to adventure, it's Rupert.
| |||