History Main / NoCanOpener

* ''Literature/ThreeMenInABoat'': On a boat trip. Played very much for laughs, with what seems to be the world's most indestructable tin of pineapple. They use every implement they can lay their hands on, including, finally, ''the boat's mast''.

* ''Literature/ThreeMenInABoat'': On a boat trip. Played very much for laughs, with what seems to be the world's most indestructable tin of pineapple.

** In the short "WesternAnimation/CannedFeud", Sylvester is left in the house while his owners are away. There is plenty of canned tuna, but only one can opener, and the mouse has it. Hijinks ensue.
** WesternAnimation/DaffyDuck and WesternAnimation/SpeedyGonzales get stuck on an island in "Moby Duck". Daffy finds a crate full of food and wants to keep it all to himself but the food is canned and Speedy is the only one with a can opener.

* In the original ''Film/DawnOfTheDead'', the characters discover a massive stockpile of spam.

[[quoteright:350:[[Film/TheNavigator http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/no_can_opener.jpg]]]]

[[quoteright:291:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pantry_291_20080410-172315.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:291:What do you ''mean'' "you forgot"?]]

* In chapter 137 of ''Ganso! Urayasu Tekkin Kazoku'' when Akane delivers a heavy stacked New Year's meal to Sensei Harumaki. She lets Jin and Fuguo deliver it instead who both end up eating it all. The two give Harumaki cheap substitute meals instead. One of them was a canned crab meat and the teacher always suffers from PerpetualPoverty, has a difficult time opening it.

* ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'': In the short "WesternAnimation/CannedFeud", Sylvester is left in the house while his owners are away. There is plenty of canned tuna, but only one can opener, and the mouse has it. Hijinks ensue.

* ''Comicbook/{{Buni}}'' [[http://www.bunicomic.com/comic/buni-50/ plays it straight.]]

** The BBC radio Adaption actually uses the "open by other means" as a minor plot point that was absent from the book: [[spoiler: Ted first says he's going to use the stalactite to stab the cans open, but realizes that even if they get the food, it'll have no real effect; they'll still be at the mercy of AM, so he quickly [[MercyKill]]s Benny, leading to the finale.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'': In the short "Canned Feud", Sylvester is left in the house while his owners are away. There is plenty of canned tuna, but only one can opener, and the mouse has it. Hijinks ensue.

* Averted and discussed in the ''CromartieHighSchool'' episode "Joshua Tree".

* During the island arc of ''NadiaTheSecretOfBlueWater'', the kids discover a wreck and manage to salvage some canned goods. Deciding to "live with nature", Nadia abandons Jean and Marie and sets off into the jungle, but not before taking some food with her - only to realize too late that her "even the simplest technology is bad" mentality is far from conductive to getting any of it out of the cans. She keeps smashing them flat with big rocks.
* Occurrs in ''UruseiYatsura'' when Ataru and company gets lost in some caves, start to starve, and stumble into a stranded UFO with a sleeping alien... and a stack of cans. Eventually they find a opener at the bottom of a shaft (although it actually leads out into the open, and Ataru steals an opener from a classmate without knowing). Then they find out the hard way the hazards of eating alien food...

* ''ToTheManorBorn.'' Audrey and Marjorie are on a picnic. Audrey is a bit miffed that sardine tins don't have keys anymore, and then they discover they forgot the can opener.
* In ''{{Bottom}}'', Richie and Eddie are forced to camp in a nasty London park for a week. Much to Richie's relief, Eddie remembered to bring his can opener. However, Richie ''[[InvertedTrope forgot all the cans]]''.
* Averted in ''Series/TheBionicWoman'' where Maxmillion, the bionic dog, does not need an opener to feed himself. All he has to do find a dog food can, and bite it open with his bionic jaw.

* ''{{Garfield}}'': On a camping trip.
** Variant during a blackout. They have plenty of canned goods and a can opener, but the can opener is electric.
* ''BloomCounty'': In Steve Dallas' fallout shelter.
** Also in relation to the survival rations Opus packed for Cutter John's fateful wheelchair-balloon voyage. Cans of food, but no can opener.
* ''LibertyMeadows'': While the characters take refuge from a forest fire.
* ''TheFarSide'': In a fallout shelter.

* The Wayward Vagabond in ''{{Homestuck}}'', when we first meet him, has discovered a wide range of canned foods, but no can-opener. He attempts to open the cans with his [[http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=002572 teeth]], his [[http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=002573 claws]] and his [[http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=002583 trusty knife]], all of which are completely useless. So [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext he declares himself]] [[http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=002585 Mayor of Can Town]] instead.
* ''{{Buni}}'' [[http://www.bunicomic.com/comic/buni-50/ plays it straight.]]

* ''ComicStrip/DennisTheMenaceUK'': Dennis tells Gnasher a parody of ''Jack and the Beanstalk'', where Dennis (in the role of Jack) gets a tin of beans, but can't open it because tin openers have yet to be invented.
** In the end, he [[spoiler:uses his third wish [[FantasyKitchenSink from a genie]] to get an electric can opener, thus his family are able to dine on beans]].

* ''{{Futurama}}'', "Mother's Day": Subverted: After all electrical appliances rebel, Fry boasts that he can still open cans with his pocket knife. It's only when he can't that he starts to despair. Dr. Zoidberg then uses his claws to open the can.

* Happened in a ''{{Daria}}'' UrbanLegend. Urban Legend 1950s Jake built a survival bunker, in which 1950s Daria accidentally gets trapped. She doesn't worry too much, until she realizes that the cans in the bunker are worthless since she doesn't have a can opener.

* Happens in ''FostersHomeForImaginaryFriends''. The gang is lost in the woods during a camping trip. Coco hatches a ton of eggs, all carrying cans of food and dinner supplies. But she didn't lay a can opener. Don't even bother linking to Fridge Logic.
* This is also the plot of DFE's ''TheAntAndTheAardvark'' short "Odd Ant Out". The blue and green aardvarks fight over a can of chocolate-covered ants, but neither of them has a can opener.

* ''{{Futurama}}'', "Mother's Day": Subverted: After all electrical appliances rebel, Fry boasts that he can still open cans with his pocket knife. It's only when he can't that he starts to despair. Dr. Zoidberg then uses his claws to open the can, and is happy about being useful for once.

* ''DennisTheMenaceUK'': Dennis tells Gnasher a parody of ''Jack and the Beanstalk'', where Dennis (in the role of Jack) gets a tin of beans, but can't open it because tin openers have yet to be invented.

* ''ThreeMenInABoat'': On a boat trip. Played very much for laughs, with what seems to be the world's most indestructable tin of pineapple.

* Averted in ''TheBionicWoman'' where Maxmillion, the bionic dog, does not need an opener to feed himself. All he has to do find a dog food can, and bite it open with his bionic jaw.

* ''IHaveNoMouthAndIMustScream'': A rare effective dramatic example, as the canned goods in question are the goal of the tortuous SnipeHunt the cast is sent on by the evil AI, and thus it makes sense that they could not be opened by brute force.

* Happens on a camping trip in one of the ''AdrianMole'' books.

* In the original ''DawnOfTheDead'', the characters discover a massive stockpile of spam.