The Cat Came Back: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

 

[[I Owe You My Life|Bob saved Alice's life.]] Alice then voluntarily and happily worships and takes care of Bob ''constantly'' to pay him back. This drives Bob crazy. Crazy enough to try and get away from Alice, but he is doomed to fail. If he gets on a bus, or a plane, or a boat, as soon as he reaches the destination, Alice will be waiting for him, holding the sweater she knitted for him, as well as a tray of [[Your Favorite|his favorite food]]. Alternatively, Bob could [[Berserk Board Barricade|barricade]] himself in an abandoned house in the middle of nowhere, and just as he finishes hammering in the last nail, he realises Alice has been [[Offscreen Teleportation|standing next to him all along]], handing him the nails.

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

* Early in ''[[Love Hina]]'', Keitaro and Naru both go on a trip to the same place on the same train at the same time in an attempt to get away from each other.

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

** Let us not forget Romilda Vane, she of the love potion which, by sequence of events, very nearly {{spoiler|got Ron killed.}}

* Appears in Joseph Heller's classic novel ''[[Catch-22]]''. Yossarian spends much of the second half of the book trying to escape Nately's Whore, going to such lengths as to take her up in a plane, fly over Italy, strap a parachute to her back and kick her out (over German held territory), only to return to Pianosa and find she's already waiting for him.

** [[Don't Explain the Joke|Locking oneself into a small airtight box would tend to lead to immediate suffocation and death.]]

** Inverted with the Igors, who stay out of your way most of the time but appear behind you right when you need them.

* Wednesday at the beginning of ''[[American Gods]]''.

* No matter how much the [[No Name Given|nameless protagonist]] of ''[[Green Eggs and Ham]]'' protests and runs, Sam-I-Am will ''always'' be just around the corner to attempt to get him to try the eponymous dish...

* In [[O. Henry]]'s "The Ransom of Red Chief", one of the kidnappers, Bill, gets so fed up with the titular kidnapee he tries to send the boy home. As he's reporting this to his partner Sam, the kid has unbeknownst to him snuck up behind him, and Sam gently points this out to Bill, after checking to see if there's any history of heart disease in his family.

 

* In addition to the animated cartoon mentioned above, the trope-naming song was also memorably featured in a sketch on ''[[The Muppet Show]]''.

** Actually, the Muppet Show sketch was an almost entirely different song, though it had much the same theme.

* [[Alexander Rybak]]'s song [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4sfh2u8cgU "OAH"] has Alexander stalking a girl everywhere, while singing "I love you o-aah". The fact that everyone else than the girl gleefully sings and dances along doesn't help her at all.

 

* One of the stories about [[The Trickster|Coyote]] in Navajo myth has him courting a woman who doesn't want him. As part of her [[Engagement Challenge]] she tells him that he must let her kill him four times (four being a major [[Arc Number]] in Navajo myth) and come back. By the fourth time she is so aggravated that she takes up a club, beats Coyote to pieces, crushes the pieces into dust, burns the dust, and scatters the ashes to the winds. He still comes back due to his [[Soul Jar]].

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

* In the ''[[Professor Layton]]'' games, Layton {{spoiler|adopts the orphaned Flora after the events of the first game. In all the subsequent games, he attempts to leave her at home rather than bring her along on dangerous investigations -- not that he doesn't want her around, but because he worries about her so much, as is made clear in his journal entries. She sneaks along anyway.}} It's somewhat [[Justified]] by an intense case of separation anxiety and [[Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?|monophobia]].

* In one chapter of the shareware game ''Spandex Force'', there's this creepy bearded guy in a Robin-type getup who keeps following the PC around, claiming that he's called "Wonder Boy" and that he wants to be his/her sidekick.

 

== [[Web Original]] ==

* The short film [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwRI39BID4E ''Perv: The Cat''], featuring a cat that consistently gets in the way of a couple about to make love, is essentially this trope.

* A [[Doug Walker]] [https://web.archive.org/web/20131029190702/http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/thatguywiththeglasses/sketches/32175-kyle-hebert-is-an-ahole skit] features him making the mistake of asking [[Kyle Hebert]] to demonstrate his narrating technique. The result is Hebert following Doug around for the rest of the day, refusing to ever shut up, and eventually he even climbs into bed with him, at which point Doug smothers him with a pillow.

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* In ''[[Homestuck]]'', the ever-creepy Cal follows Dave around.

* You can't get rid of [http://nedroid.com/2009/05/party-cat-full-series/ Party Cat], even when you get rid of Party Cat.

* The Orb of Bliss in ''[[The Adventures of Wiglaf and Mordred]]'' Unlike the magical swords, she floats and can move freely about, thus following Mordred everywhere. And even when he tried to get rid of her, she comes back. {{spoiler|Most recently he got fed listening to her chatter and stuffed her in a box which he tossed out the 2nd story window, only to have it, and the undamaged orb, returned in the next page by the downstairs neighbour.}}

* Igor in ''[[Nodwick]]'' is able to confront the title character a number of times when he's fleeing from the Henchmen's Guild, only to be fast-talked into going back empty-handed.

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* In the [[Looney Tunes]] short ''Yankee Doodle Daffy'', Porky Pig is a talent agent trying to go on vacation, who first has to get away from Daffy Duck, who is trying to convince Porky that his young client "Sleepy LaGoon" has star quality, mainly by demonstrating his apparent talents himself.

** A similarly-themed cartoon (''Draftee Daffy'') has Daffy trying to evade "The Little Man from the Draft Board", who even follows him into Hell.

*** Oh, you mean [[Fluffy the Terrible|Gossamer!]]

** This also happened to Ralph Wolf, when he proved unable to evade Sam the Sheepdog. {{spoiler|Like the "Tortoise Beats Hare" example listed above, it turned out that there were multiple Sams.}}

** Of course, there often ''was'' more than one of him.

** The short ''[[Northwest Hounded Police]]'' is pretty much nothing but this trope.

* The Warner siblings on ''[[Animaniacs]]'' are fond of doing this as well. Apparently, they can even bi-locate (stand in two positions at the same time in the same room).

** They meet their match in the short ''[http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=3qPPZnX13Yc Chairman of the Bored]'', in the form of Francis "Pip" Pumphandle, who follows them home and only leaves when his monotonous anecdote is complete. At the end they decide they actually miss him, and chase after him, wanting to hear more of his stories.

** Mr. Burns gets another example when he uses the trapdoor in his office and the victims fall out of the ceiling in the same office, despite this being physically impossible. Burns simply responds exasperatedly "Oh, it's doing that ''thing'' again..."

** And in a Treehouse of Horror ep., with Homer threatened by a psychotic Krusty doll; Homer drops the doll into a [[Bottomless Pit]], but it comes back by [[Cape Fear|riding back home under the car]].

** Also in the newspaper comics as well.

* ''[[Dexter's Laboratory]]'' had a pretty standard version of this one in the episode "The Continuum of Cartoon Fools", in which Deedee repeatedly found ways to get into Dexter's Lab, and only by figuring out the obvious entrance Deedee could use every time to get inside (the secret book case entrance) could Dexter seal her off once and for all. The kicker? {{spoiler|He locked himself out of the lab. He then spends [[Overly Long Gag|the last thirty seconds or so of the cartoon]] going on a tirade about how he's no better than "that crazy coyote or that stupid duck".}}

* In an episode of ''[[Recess]]'', a kid follows the Recess gang around, causing them bad luck. They do everything they can to lose him, but he always seems to catch up somehow, invariably greeted with sheer disbelief by the troupe. In one of their more extreme plans to get rid of him, Vince boots a ball all the way to China and tells the kid to retrieve it. The gang are momentarily relieved that he's finally gone, until he inexplicably returns from China ''a few seconds later'', complete with a hat and a bowl of Chinese food.

* In the ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'' episode "Perry Lays an Egg", Perry the Platypus discovers Dr. Doofensmirtz's latest scheme is simply to ridicule [[Interspecies Romance|the whale who stole one of his old girlfriends]], and promptly turns around with an annoyed look on his face. Dr. Doofensmirtz has to chase Perry down in this manner and demand Perry thwart his [[Poke the Poodle|"evil scheme"]]. "I just insulted the macaroni and cheese recipe of a whale! How is that not evil?"

* Lampshaded in an episode of ''[[Aqua Teen Hunger Force]]'', where Shake, Frylock and Meatwad attempt to rid themselves of a murderous ventriloquists' dummy, only for it to reappear every time they look away. Their final attempt to get rid of it involves Shake burning it with a flame thrower while Frylock and Meatwad watch several surveillance monitors looking in every direction. The dummy then appears from above in a parachute.

* Bing the chameleon from ''[[The Angry Beavers]]'' is very persistent once he decides you're his friend.

* An episode of ''[[Jimmy Two-Shoes]]'' had Heloise, who just wanted to read her book, being pestered by Jimmy and Beezy, who were having a contest to see who could make the most annoying sound.

* ''[[WITCH (animation)|WITCH]]'' has this with Irma, who is constantly hounded by a boy, Marvin, who has a massive crush on her (which she pretends not to appreciate as time wears on).

* ''[[American Dad]]'' had this when Hayley and Jeff trying to flee from Roger attempting to take the bag of money Stan gave to Jeff. Their attempts fail when Roger is right there where they're hiding. The escape ends in the Great Wall of China with Roger finally got the money, but almost all was spent from the escape.

 

== [[Real Life]] ==

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Alice and Bob]]

[[Category:Rule of Funny]]

[[Category:Example as a Thesis]]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cat Came Back, The}}