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Thirty Minutes or It's Free: Difference between revisions

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Thirty Minutes or It's Free (view source)

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{{trope}}
{{quote|''"Wise men say forgiveness is divine, but never pay full price for a late pizza."''|'''Michelangelo''', ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Filmfilm)|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]: [[The Movie]]''}}
 
A pizza is ordered. If it fails to arrive within a certain time frame, it's free! <ref>This practice was at one point used in [[Real Life]], but was mostly ended because so many delivery drivers got speeding tickets or caused accidents.</ref>
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== Card Games ==
* In ''[[Ninja Burger (Tabletop Game)|Ninja Burger]]'', the rule is "Delivery in thirty minutes or we commit [[Seppuku]]." Based on Greenwich Mean Time for locations in geosynchronous orbit. And there's one city they don't deliver to ({{spoiler|Detroit. Anything but Detroit.}}). Aside from that -- yes, the extreme case. Lost hikers, hostages, recluses or dictators who don't want to have to turn off their security, submarine crews... thirty minutes, pretty much guaranteed.
** They even mention that [[Stock Unsolved Mysteries|Jimmy Hoffa]] is one of their best customers. And yes, they do deliver to the Bermuda Triangle.
 
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== Films -- Live-Action ==
* ''[[Spider-Man (Filmfilm)|Spider-Man]] 2'': Peter Parker lost a job as a delivery boy due to arriving late having to give the food to the customer for free. His responsibilities as Spider-Man kept getting in the way. Though watching Spider-Man swinging through the skyscrapers of New York with pizza boxes was pretty badass.
{{quote| "Hey! He just stole that guy's pizzas!"}}
* ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Filmfilm)|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'': the pizza delivery is two minutes late, so Michelangelo got the pizza at a discount. Also, the "the address" was a storm drain they christened "122 1/8", making the address a bit of a puzzle.
* The ''[[Thunderbirds]]'' movie: John, who mans space station Thunderbird 5, asks if he can have a pizza sent up to him, and adds "thirty minutes or it's free, right?"
* ''Dirty Work'': In the beginning, [[Norm MacDonald|Norm MacDonald's]] character was fired from pizza delivery after failing to deliver a pizza within thirty minutes because a car accident blocked his route. The [[Jerkass]] customer informed him for being two minutes late. This makes it the fourteenth time the character was fired in the past three months.
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== Live-Action TV ==
* In an episode of ''[[Better Withwith You]]'', Debra Jo Rupp and Kurt Fuller's characters [[Kick the Dog|deliberately make the delivery]] [[Jerkass|guy wait outside their door]] for 12 minutes, just so they don't have to pay.
* An episode of ''[[Due South]]'' utilized this, when Ray called a place far away on purpose in the hopes that the delivery boy would be late and the pizza would be free.
* The guys in ''[[Men Behaving Badly]]'' tried to take advantage of this by deliberately asking for rare and hard-to-prepare toppings to slow down the response time, and eventually pretending there's no-one home in the hope of claiming later that the delivery guy must have gone to the wrong house. Tony messed it up because he wasn't in on the 'pretending no-one's here' bit.
* In the British sitcom ''[[The Thin Blue Line]]'', Inspector Fowler says this while pretending to be a pizza delivery boy so he can gain access to a bank where robbers are holding people hostage.
* The Deputies of ''[[Reno 911 (TV)|Reno 911]]'' set up a kid like this. They called in an order for halfway across town and then waited down the block. When the delivery driver came tearing out of the parking lot at breakneck speed, they pulled him over and arrested him.
* ''[[The Red Green Show]]'': Red sets up a number of roadblocks in order to get the pizzas he ordered for free, unbeknownst to him, the pizza guy called back and got directions from Harold on how to avoid all of the Lodge's debris.
* In the short-lived BBC comedy about an understaffed remote RAF base, ''[[All Along the Watchtower]]'', a company offers 50p off the price for every 10 minutes longer than an hour the pizza takes to arrive. When the pizza finally arrives (days later than ordered) the cast are also given several pounds.
* The Australian sitcom ''[[Hey Dad..!]]'' had an episode about a diet, or a hunger strike, or something, that ended with the starving characters giving up and ordering pizza -- which then never arrives, because one of the other characters deliberately misdirects the delivery guy in an attempt to get the pizza free.
* The music video for PBS's ''[[Square One TV]]'', [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOk4cMfwsIY "Ghost of a Chance"], seems to be based on this trope. The pizza delivery guy is getting lost inside a haunted house to delay him from delivering in time.
* On one episode of ''[[Clarissa Explains It All]]'', Clarissa and Ferguson are allowed to order pizza while their parents are out, despite their mom's usual strict health-food obsession. They repeatedly time the delivery boy down to ''seconds,'' and then repeatedly send him back with a new order when he's inevitably late.
* In ''[[Alias (TV series)|Alias]],'' when in the safehouse, Will says ""thirty minutes or less" before opening the door and getting shot by Sark.
* ''[[The Adventures of Pete and Pete]]'': Ellen gets a job as a pizza delivery girl and has to do this in the final episode.
* In an episode of Brazilian series ''A Grande Família'', the delivery boy made it on time but the customer delayed his response until the thirty minutes were off so the pizza would be free. The two of them argued over this.
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== Video Games ==
* Ordering a mid-battle delivery in ''[[Disgaea (Video Game)|Disgaea]] 2'' warrants the response, "If it's not there in thirty minutes or less, just wait longer!"
* One of the [[Easter Egg|fake hint messages]] in ''[[Nethack]]'' is a plug for a nonexistent pizza delivery shop, promising it "in thirty turns, or it's free!"
* While not as reliable about it as [[Ninja Burger]], ''[[Billy vs. SNAKEMAN]]'' has a semi-secret fast-food franchise (partially concealed by the façaade of a ''different'' semi-secret fast-food franchise) which hires ninja for their thirty -minute deliveries, of varying difficulties and with active opposition a possibility.
* In ''[[Sim City]] 2000'', if traffic congestion in your city is bad enough, the newspaper will run articles about pizza chains in your city rescinding these policies.
* In ''[[The Sims (Video Game)|The Sims]]'', it takes an hour of Sim Time (a minute of gameplay, if you don't speed things up). When the pizza guy arrives and is greeted, a text box comes up with "Dude! I made it from Sim City to your house in less than an hour!" (And then your Sim household pays 40 Simoleons for the damned pizza!)
* One of the Reaper's [[Stop Poking Me]] quotes in ''[[Starcraft II (Video Game)|Starcraft II]]''.
{{quote| '''Reaper:''' I'm bringin' the pain, and the pizza, in thirty minutes or it's free!}}
* The videogame of ''Spider-Man 2'' uses Peter's pizza-delivery job, as seen in the film, above, as a [[Timed Mission]].
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'''Muckles:''' Your guarantee states that you will deliver in thirty minutes.<br />
You have exceeded your time limitations by approximately 7.2 minutes. The cost of those is nullified. }}
* ''[[Dawn of Time (Webcomic)|Dawn of Time]]'' parodies the trope, ''[[Mad Max]]''-style, in a filler arc titled "[http://dawnoftimecomics.com/index.php?id=260 Dawn in Time]".
* Butch of ''[[Chopping Block]]'' has tested whether the pizza is free [[Serial Killer|if the pizza guy is never heard from again.]]
** In a later strip, he's revealed to have a "dead in thirty minutes or you go free" guarantee.
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* In an episode of ''[[Pucca]]'', the Go-Rong restaurant has a "thirty minutes or it's free" policy, so the [[Goldfish Poop Gang|Vagabond Ninjas]] plan to get free Ja-Jang Noodles by making deliverygirl Pucca late. One of the attempts were to disguise themselves as a dragon. {{spoiler|They eventually succeed, but get arrested for impersonating a dragon, and the police officer gets their noodles.}}
* On ''[[Chowder]]'', Chowder and Schnitzel had to deliver an order before sundown or else it was free. The customer lived on top of a giant. They finally make it just before sunset, but the customer delays them until the time is up. Then the giant helps them out by walking west until the sun was up again.
* When [[Warner Bros]]. had original ''[[Looney Tunes (Animation)|Looney Tunes]]'' shorts online, one cartoon involved Daffy Duck ordering from Porky Pig what amounted to a plain cheese pizza, and then trying to delay the delivery in hope of getting the pizza free.
* ''[[The Simpsons (Animationanimation)|The Simpsons]]''
** The "138th Episode Spectacular" contains an outtake from the "Devil and Homer Simpson" segment of "Treehouse of Horror IV", in which Marge hires lawyer [[Ambulance Chaser|Lionel Hutz]] to represent Homer after seeing a Yellow Pages ad in which Hutz promises "Your case won in thirty minutes or your pizza's free". At the end of the clip, Hutz gives Marge a pizza box; when she points out that they actually ''did'' win the case, he tells her the box is empty anyway.
** There's also the time Homer ran a break-up service: "We're there in thirty minutes, or your next break-up is free!"
* An episode of ''[[The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat]]'' has Felix charged with delivering a meatball in five minutes or it was free, complete with a continually running timer in the corner of the screen. When he just barely makes it in time, the customer's wife expresses her desire for a meatball of her own, and the countdown clock gives a nasty chuckle as it starts without even letting Felix get back to ''retrieve'' the meatball.
* ''[[Futurama (Animation)|Futurama]]'' pizzas use this system, but the man on the box will angrily tell you how long it's been if you try to con the delivery person.
* Cartoon Network's ''[[League of Super Evil]]'' ([[Fun Withwith Acronyms|read the acronym]]) executing an "evil plot" to cause the pizza delivery boy to be late and get free pizza, complete with death traps on their walkway. They've apparently pulled this so many times that the manager of the pizza place has a ''war room'' for the purpose of thwarting their plots against the delivery boys. [[Harmless Villain|Everyone's gotta start somehwere...]]
* ''[[FostersFoster's Home for Imaginary Friends]]'': When Frankie discovers the pizza they ordered for the house is over the budget they have, Bloo runs out a tackles the delivery guy and sits on his head until the thirty minute marker has past.
* An episode of ''[[King of the Hill (Animation)|King of the Hill]]'' has Peggy and Luanne rushing to the pizza store to pick up their order before it gets cold. Luanne [[Blatant Lies|sagely]] reminds Peggy that if they're not there in thirty minutes the pizza is free.
* In a ''[[Histeria (Animation)|Histeria]]'' sketch about Rene Descartes, Toast delivers him a pizza that was actually meant for Galileo, the reason being that Toast can't get to Italy within a half-hour.
* ''[[Tiny Toon Adventures (Animation)|Tiny Toon Adventures]]''
** In an episode, Little Beeper is the pizza delivery boy. Only because Little Beeper has effectively [[Super Speed]], the time is measured in mere ''seconds''.
** In another episode, Buster Bunny is a knight for hire and is hired to rescue Babs from a dragon. Hamton reminds buster that, if he doesn't save her in thirty minutes, the next rescue is free.
* In ''[[The Batman (Animation)|The Batman]]'', Joker once ambushed someone by waiting outside their door dressed like a pizza boy. When the victim phoned for pizza, his reply was that it would be there in thirty ''seconds'' or it was free before immediately knocking on the door.
* ''[[Kick Buttowski]]'': A ridiculously intricate version was done in "Stand and Delivery" where a mysterious customer keeps ordering food from Battle Snax and delaying the order so he'll get it for free, almost running the Magnusson family out of business.
* ''[[Phineas and Ferb (Animation)|Phineas and Ferb]]'', "The Lake Nose Monster": Doofenshmirtz mentions this trope when explaining to Perry the Platypus that he's waiting for his hot wings to be delivered. To the bottom of the lake.
* ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1987 (Animation)|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1987]]'': One episode featured villains breaking in the mansion of a pizza chain's tycoon. Raphael describes the motto as being that, if the pizza doesn't come on time, it comes cold.
* ''[[The New Woody Woodpecker Show]]'' has an episode where Woody tried to delay Dooley so his pizza would be free. His efforts not only failed, but also ruined the pizza. When Woody tried to protest, Dooley said he guaranteed delivery, not satisfaction. Because Woody didn't have the money to pay for the pizza, Dooley had him work off the debt as a delivery boy.
 
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