Automoderated users, Autopatrolled users, Bureaucrats, Comment administrators, Confirmed users, Forum administrators, Interface administrators, Moderators, Rollbackers, Administrators
117,056
edits
Help! Help! I'm Trapped in an X Factory!: Difference between revisions
Help! Help! I'm Trapped in an X Factory! (view source)
Revision as of 15:44, 9 February 2015
, 9 years agoAdded oldest known invocation of the trope, from 1848, added comic book examples, reorganized text, updated categories
Looney Toons (talk | contribs) m (Looney Toons moved page Help Help Trapped in Title Factory to Help! Help! I'm Trapped in an X Factory!: Added proper punctuation and proper form to page name) |
Looney Toons (talk | contribs) (Added oldest known invocation of the trope, from 1848, added comic book examples, reorganized text, updated categories) |
||
Line 5:
In comedic versions, it's usually just a throwaway gag, and the fate of the mysterious victim isn't ever alluded to.
The meme at the heart of this trope dates all the way back to ''1848'', as seen in the [http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=D-s8AQAAIAAJ&dq=note%20help%20%22i%20am%20a%20prisoner%20in%22&pg=PA106#v=onepage&q&f=false December 23, 1848 issue] of ''[[Scientific American]]'', where it was used ''very'' seriously:
{{quote|'''''Singular Affair'''''
''Some two weeks since a merchant in Bangor, Me, in emptying a tea chest, found in the bottom a snuff box containing a five dollar bill an the Dover, N. H. Bank, and attached to it, the following epistle written on a piece of paper of the quality generally used by the Chinese in putting up tea in pound packages.
''Pkkin, Dec. 1846. Dear Mother—I am a prisoner in a Tea House, and have been for six years. I wish you would go to Washington and get our government to interfere and obtain my release. 1 enclose you a five dollor note; it was presented to me by an American gentleman ; it is of no use to me, but it may be to you.
''Edward Lovzxl. Directed to Mrs. Nancy Lovell, Boston, Mass.''}}
By the way, I'm trapped here, and they are forcing me to type up trope entries! Send help!
{{examples}}
== Comic Books ==
* DC Comics seems to have been fond of this trope, at least in the 1960s. For instance:
** [http://www.comicvine.com/detective-comics-383-the-fortune-cookie-caper-purs/4000-112633/
''Detective Comics'' #383] has a story which (despite the cover) happens when Robin gets a fortune cookie message reading "Help! I'm a prisoner in a Chinese Restaurant!"
** DC's [http://www.comics.org/issue/21426/ ''Swing with Scooter'' no. 9], October-November 1967, has a similar rescue story kicked off by finding a message in a cookie.
▲* The earliest use that has been found for "I'm being held prisoner at [a Chinese food preparation place] is from 1955 [http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/fortune_cookie_or_fortune_cake_help_im_prisoner_in_a_chinese_bakery/ (listed here)] but [[Weasel Words|some suspect]] that it's been around for longer than that.
== [[Literature]] ==
Line 15 ⟶ 29:
* In ''[[Goldfinger]]'' (the original novel) [[James Bond]] leaves a note on the underside of the toilet on a plane, telling of Goldfinger's plot and saying that delivery of the note to Felix Leiter of the CIA will result in a reward, hoping that the cleaning crew will find it; but doesn't know whether or not it got found & delivered, or thrown out, or found by the bad guys.
* In ''The Tightrope Walker'' by [[Dorothy Gilman]], the plot starts when the owner of a second-hand store finds a "Please help" message hidden in one of the objects in her store.
* In 1964 comedian [[Alan King]] wrote a book he entitled ''Help! I'm A Prisoner In A Chinese Bakery''.
* Golden age SF writer Cyril Kornbluth wrote a satirical story entitled [http://www.gutenberg.ca/ebooks/kornbluthcm-msfoundinfortunecookie/kornbluthcm-msfoundinfortunecookie-00-h.html "MS. Found in a Chinese Fortune Cookie"] in 1957 which clearly invokes this trope by name.
== [[Live Action TV]] ==
Line 48 ⟶ 64:
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Comedy Tropes]]
[[Category:Help! Help! I'm Trapped in
[[Category:Older Than Radio]]
| |||