History Main / LastResortTakeout

* ''Series/AlexRider'': How cooking works in the world of Jack Starbright: 1) Order Chinese. 2) Get a pan out. 3) Wipe a little sauce inside the pan so it looks like you cooked. Ian's amusement when he thanks her for cooking suggests he knows exactly what's up.

[[folder:Music]]
* In "Trapped In The Drive-Thru", Music/WeirdAlYankovic and his wife mull their options for dinner. After ruling out leftovers, delivery, and several restaurants, they go to the drive-through.
[[/folder]]

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* One ad for Raising Cane's has a family prepare a meal for watching a football game, only for the stove to burn. The mom decides to stop by Raising Cane's to pick up the meal in time for the game.

* A commercial for Hardee's from 1987 has a father cook dinner for his two children because his wife is working late. [[DadsCantCook He ends up burning dinner]], so his children suggest that he go to Hardee's to get them Children's Meals.

* ''ComicStrip/FoxTrot'':
** Andy ruins Thanksgiving dinner due to trying too hard to make it better than the Thanksgiving dinners her mother (whom she has always felt overshadowed by due to her mother being TheAce) makes. After they resolve the issue (by her mom revealing that she had a similar relationship with ''her'' mother) the family orders pizza.
** Another has Jason reveal he's secretly rigged the stove to flare up by remote control, ensuring their mother's latest [[IfItTastesBadItMustBeGoodForYou horrible health food concoction]] is ruined and they have to order pizza.
** Another has a pizza guy showing up at the door, Roger claiming they didn't order any, then paying for it and telling Andy the forces of fate have ordered dinner for them (and it's apparently not the first time)[[note]]The "forces of fate" actually being their kids ordering pizza without their parents' knowledge[[/note]].

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

* Film/MrsDoubtfire is also forced to resort to this after an attempt to cook dinner goes terribly wrong. He orders in food from an expensive Italian restaurant and successfully passes it off as his own, greatly impressing his ex-wife and their kids.

* In ''[[Literature/{{Discworld}} Nanny Ogg's Cookbook]]'', [[MadScientist Leonard of Quirm's]] Recipe for a Grilled Cheese Sandwich is a long list of tangents involving the invention of various devices based on the ingredients of the sandwich, with the last step being "Send out for pizza."

* Creator/JudithKerr's book ''Literature/TheTigerWhoCameToTea'' has Sophie's Dad suggest that they go out to a cafe after the eponymous character eats everything in the house, including the food that Sophie's Mum was cooking for dinner.

* In the [[Literature/MegLangslowMysteries Meg Langslow]] book ''Revenge of the Wrought Iron Flamingos'', Meg has promised Michael's mother she'll give her the recipe for a meal she'd served; only problem is, the meal she'd cooked had been ruined and she'd gotten carry-out from a nearby fancy restaurant. She tried getting a similar recipe online but it wasn't nearly as good. Meg's mom solves the problem by negotiating a trade with the restaurant's famous chef to get the actual recipe in exchange for Meg, a blacksmith, making him a custom wine rack.

* ''Series/GeneralHospital''. A disastrous Thanksgiving at the Quartermaines has become so standard that everyone knows it expects that they'll be ordering pizza before the night over. The worst example had to be estranged son Jason showing up with a turkey to replace the one that had been destroyed--looking like for once they'll have a traditional dinner--only to have that one get ruined as well when a pair of burglars runs out of the house.
* The first ThanksgivingEpisode of ''Series/BrooklynNineNine'' has Boyle ordering various takeout meals from restaurants from various cultures when all the squad's other Thanksgiving dinner plans bottom out (most notably Amy Santiago's atrocious cooking).
* ''Series/AlexRider'': How cooking works in the world of Jack Starbright: 1) Order Chinese. 2) Get a pan out. 3) Wipe a little sauce inside the pan so it looks like you cooked. Ian's amusement when he thanks her for cooking suggests he knows exactly what's up.
* In the ''Series/FawltyTowers'' episode "Gourmet Night", the chef gets too drunk to cook (or stand up), so out of desperation Basil calls a local restaurant to provide the duck dinners. Of course, [[CarryingACake getting the dinners from the restaurant back to the hotel]] turns out to be impossible despite several attempts.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Music]]
* In "Trapped In The Drive-Thru", Music/WeirdAlYankovic and his wife mull their options for dinner. After ruling out leftovers, delivery, and several restaurants, they go to the drive-through.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Puppet Shows]]

* Part of the flashback story in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2y_-vsHvPBE He Said. She Said.]], told by one of the male characters. He was supposed to cook for his girl friend but forgot to pay the electricity bill. With the power gone, he decided to take her out instead but then the trouble starts.
* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOyQ3nTDgCs Thanksgiving With the Kranzes]] is a spoof of ''Film/{{Apollo 13}}'', where Thanksgiving dinner is nearly ruined, because it turns out Gene Kranz's family bought a defective oven for their kitchen. Still Kranz salvages the dinner with a similar speech to the one he gave in the actual movie, ending with "Take out is ''[[DefiedTrope not an option]]''!".

* In the WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse cartoon "Mickey's Birthday Party", WesternAnimation/{{Goofy}} tries to bake Mickey's birthday cake, but every cake he makes gets ruined. Finally he has to buy one from the bakery. [[CarryingACake He trips]] [[CoveredInGunge and drops it on the birthday boy.]]
* Invoked in ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'' episode, "[[Recap/TheLoudHouseS2E10FedUpShellShocked Fed Up]]", where Lincoln and his sisters get tired of Lynn Sr. making them the same seven meals every week, so they work together to sabotage his every attempt to make dinner so they can order pizza.
* ''WesternAnimation/FostersHomeForImaginaryFriends'':
** A particularly infuriating example comes from "Imposter's Home For Um... Make Em' Up Pals", where Bloo and a new imaginary friend eat all of the food that was supposed to go towards making dinner for the house. When this is discovered Frankie decides to order some takeout, but she's forced to go out ''again'' to get more food to actually make something. Cue her coming back to see that the house [[HypocriticalHumor ordered pizza while she was out]], making her entire second trip useless.
** In the short, "Give Pizza a Chance", all the food in the refrigerator spoils when Bloo leaves the door open, so Frankie gets Wilt to order pizza. When Frankie discovers that the pizza he ordered for the house is over the budget they have, [[ThirtyMinutesOrItsFree Bloo tackles the Pizza man and gets Eduardo to sit on him for thirty minutes so they can get free pizza]].
* ''WesternAnimation/HorridHenry'': After his mother’s plan to go to a girly shopping centre goes awry (due to the car running out of fuel) and his dad’s fishing goes wrong (case in point, [[EpicFail the poles are set on fire and his clothes are stolen by a trash man]]), Henry reveals that he has a voucher for a fast-food restaurant, which the actually decide to [[PetTheDog take him up on.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'': In "Happy Hank's Giving", after a Thanksgiving that goes humiliatingly FromBadToWorse (including [[StuckAtTheAirportPlot being trapped at the airport]] and Hank's smoked turkey being detonated by a bomb squad when the security dog goes crazy and it's mistaken for a bomb), the Hills and their friends try to make do with a dinner at the airport's food court.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}} (1993)'': One short is a take on the famous "Witch's scene" from ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}'', in which the three witches (played here by Dot Warner, Hello Nurse and Slappy Squirrel) recite the lines from the same scene in the play, while Yakko translates it into something the audience will understand. His version makes it sound like they're just trying to cook dinner (with Wakko throwing in assorted odd ingredients as they name them), and at the end he hops into the scene to ask what they're actually cooking up. Even the "witches" aren't sure, until their brew summons forth Mr. Director, to their great horror. After trapping him back in the cauldron and sending it blasting off, Yakko suggests that they just send out for pizza.

** On ''Series/RowanAndMartinsLaughIn'', Creator/LilyTomlin played a five-and-a-half-year-old girl named Edith Ann, who has made a few appearances on ''Sesame Street''. In one of these spots, Edith Ann tells about the time she made a sandwich for her dog, Buster, using mustard, peanut butter, salami, cheese, lettuce, pickles, raisins, pretzels, tuna, oatmeal, and a black olive. Buster doesn't want to eat it, and Edith Ann, after trying it, admits it tastes gross. She is forbidden by her mother to make sandwiches until she is six.

** Creator/LilyTomlin's Edith Ann character from ''Series/RowanAndMartinsLaughIn'' made a few appearances on the show. In one of these spots, Edith Ann tells about the time she made a sandwich for her dog, Buster, using mustard, peanut butter, salami, cheese, lettuce, pickles, raisins, pretzels, tuna, oatmeal, and a black olive. Buster doesn't want to eat it, and Edith Ann is forbidden by her mother to make sandwiches until she is six.

* ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogIDW'': PlayedForLaughs. In the ''[[Recap/SonicTheHedgehogIDWMisadventuresArc Misadventures]]'' arc, the Rabbit Family spent the better part of an evening preparing a big dinner for Team Chaotix, only for Rough and Tumble to ruin ''everything'', including the roast, appetizers, and gelatin dessert, greatly upsetting Cream. By the time her mom, Vanilla, gets home, everything has been in some way or another destroyed, which is exactly when the Chaotix also show up. After things have calmed down, Vanilla orders Chinese takeout for everyone, including the Skunk Brothers (who were the reason why everything went to hell in the first place).

* ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogIDW'': PlayedForLaughs. In the ''[[Recap/SonicTheHedgehogIDWMisadventuresArc Misadventures]]'' arc, Team Chaotix initially accepts the offer to take Knuckles' case of hunting down his Echidna artifacts after the promise of being paid. When the whole mess is sorted (which causes them to almost miss their dinner plans with Vanilla), Vector asks how Knuckles intends to pay them. Knuckles, being an echidna who lives on a reclusive island (and possibly no money to his name), offers them fresh seasonal fruits, as well as stuff foraged from Mushroom Hill. Espio then consoles Vector about how these are essentially free groceries, and that it will help the [[PerpetualPoverty perpetually broke]] Detective Agency's savings in the long run, to which the crocodile begrudgingly accepts.

* Film/MrsDoubtfire is also forced to resort to this after an attempt to cook dinner goes terribly wrong.

So you have plans for supper. Problem is, nothing's going right. Either the oven's broken, the food is frozen or inedible, no pans are available, and/or you're pressed for time. No need to fear; there's always at least one restaurant nearby to resolve this plight so no one goes hungry! There are two types: openly taking guests to the restaurant or discreetly buying the restaurant food and serving it on your own plates, to trick the guests.