History Main / SwallowTheKey

Subtrope of EatingSolvesEverything. Sister-trope to EatTheEvidence May be indicative of CrazyConsumption. See also StomachOfHolding, ExtremeOmnivore, IAteWhat. Compare TreasureChestCavity, PhlebotinumMuncher. Could be a rather unfortunate outcome of PetGetsTheKeys or JailBake.

Subtrope of EatingSolvesEverything. Sister-trope to EatTheEvidence May be indicative of CrazyConsumption. See also StomachOfHolding, ExtremeOmnivore, IAteWhat. Compare TreasureChestCavity, PhlebotinumMuncher. Could be a rather unfortunate outcome of PetGetsTheKeys of JailBake.

See also StomachOfHolding. Compare TreasureChestCavity. Could be a rather unfortunate outcome of PetGetsTheKeys of JailBake.

See also StomachOfHolding. Compare TreasureChestCavity.

* In ''[[VideoGame/LastHalfOfDarkness Shadows of the Servants]]'', the doctor swallowed the key to a strongbox before she died. [[spoiler: You can't open the box containing the ashes from her cremation, but can put it in the fireplace so everything ''except'' the key will be destroyed.]]

* ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'': Dredd does this in the story "Beat the Devil" in ''Judge Dredd Annual 1984'' (and later reprinted multiple times) where he confronts the Devil (and decides to arrest him. (The story is told in rhyme):

* ComicBook/JudgeDredd did this in the comic where he fought the devil.

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* In the DonaldDuck cartoon "Trick or Treat", Don locks away all his Halloween candy in a closet and swallows the key. A witch then casts a spell on Donald's feet so that they kick out the key. (He then kicks the key under the door of the closet, making the witch angry, and increasing the spell's potency so his feet make him ram the door down.)

* On the ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' short "Fin n' Catty", a cat corners a fish inside a shower, so he locks the door and swallows the key. Only then does the cat realize the shower stall is filled with water ([[CatsHateWater which cats hate]], as everyone knows) and he tries to punch the key out of his stomach.
* In the WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes short "Hyde and Tweet", Sylvester did this after finally capturing Tweety. Only after Tweety's transformation does Sylvester realize that he's trapped.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Doug}}'': In "Doug's Fan Club", Doug imagines locking up Todd and Wesley in a safe right before promptly swallowing the key.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Robotboy}}'': Gus did this twice, first to stop Kurt from using the bathroom so Tommy can torture him for Robotboy's whereabouts and second while Tommy burns the containment unit holding Robotboy imprisoned (Ironically, the second example ended the episode with Constantine and Dr. Kamikaze locked outside of their submarine lair).
* Dexter in ''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory'' does this in one episode when he discovered Dee Dee went through the secret bookcase entrance to prevent her from ever getting in again. [[DidntThinkThisThrough Little does he know, however, he had also locked himself out of his own lab as well]].
* In an early episode of ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'', Double D instructs Ed to hide the key. The guy slips the key between two slices of bread and ''eats it as a sandwich''. ''Chewing and all''.
* ''WesternAnimation/TazMania'': Taz does this after he has cornered Francis X. Bushlad (who is disguised as an attractive female Tasmanian devil) in "A Young Taz's Fancy".
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': In "On a Clear Day I Can't See My Sister", the manager of the Sprawl Mart locks his employees inside the store, and then taunts them by swallowing the bathroom key.
* ''WesternAnimation/HiHiPuffyAmiYumi'': In "Arbor Day", Ami chains herself, Yumi, and Kaz (the latter two were not as willing as she was) to a tree to prevent the bad guy from cutting it down. She then swallows the key to the padlock on the chain, and after the bad guy learns his GreenAesop, she expels it on command by hiccuping.

* One of Jackal's men in ''Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar'' does this in an attempt to keep Jackal from releasing the Devil's Rebirth from his cell. It doesn't work out that well though, as Jackal rips him open to get it back.

* In ''Mickey and the Beanstalk'' segment of ''WesternAnimation/FunAndFancyFree'', the giant attempts to swallow the key when locking Goofy and Donald in a chest, but decides to put it in his pocket which Mickey soon retrieves.

* ''Franchise/{{Saw}}''
** Apparently ''forced'' on one of Jigsaw's captives in the original ''Film/SawI'', so that another prisoner could be required to cut it out of his body to stop her own rapidly-approaching demise. [[spoiler: No, contrary to what she'd been told, the key-swallower was ''not'' dead when she started cutting.]]
** Done again in the final movie, ''Film/Saw3D''. The protagonist must free a woman from her trap, with the key in her stomach attached to fishing line coming out of her mouth, with fishhook included, so he had to be very careful when pulling it out or else the hook would tear her apart from the inside.

* In ''Film/SupermanIII'', Gus does this with the starter key to his machine after he [[HeelRealization realizes it's about to murder Superman.]] Unfortunately, the machine has a mind of its own and restarts itself.
* In ''Film/KissMeDeadly'', a woman with information the bad guys want is killed, but she leaves a hint with Mike Hammer that reveals she'd swallowed a key to finding the MacGuffin of the movie.

* In ''Literature/JoeyPigzaSwallowedTheKey'', this is done by the titular character entirely by accident: he suffers from ADHD and develops a habit of putting the key in his mouth and then using the string attached to it to pull it back out just before he swallows it. When his exasperated teacher removes the key from its string to discourage this, he still unthinkingly puts the key in his mouth and since there's no string to retrieve it this time...

* ''Series/TalesFromTheCrypt''
** "Carrion Death" has a criminal and a cop that are handcuffed together. The cop is killed, but he manages to swallow the key before the criminal can get it, forcing the criminal to lug the dead cop along as he attempts to escape across the desert.
** Mr. Duvall of "Dead Wait" swallows a highly-valuable black pearl to keep Red from stealing it. Unfortunately, Red has a knife and no compunction about murder, so this backfires rather gruesomely.
* In ''{{Series/Jekyll}}'', there's a scene where Claire swallows the key keeping Hyde locked up. (In this case, it turns out she didn't actually go through with the swallowing, and the key stayed hidden in her mouth.)

* ''Series/TheSuiteLifeOnDeck'': In one episode Mr. Blanket, the school's insane Guidance Counselor, handcuffs Moseby and Zack together and swallows the key.
* The televised ''Series/{{Zorro}}'' with Duncan Regehr twisted this -- at the end of one episode, he chained up the alcade in the town square and forced the alcade to swallow the key.

* Not done intentionally, but El Blanco the Graboid ate a gangster in an early episode of ''Series/{{Tremors}}: The Series'', who happened to have the key to a mob safety-deposit box around his neck at the time. In a later episode, the gangster's surviving associate returns to try to kill El Blanco and retrieve the key, hoping to empty the deposit box of its millions.
* Done accidentally in ''Series/{{Coupling}}'', when Jeff Murdock holds the key to his girlfriend's handcuffs in his mouth and then does his best Darth Vader impression. He spends the episode trying to find a way to get it out before she realizes what's gone wrong.
-->'''Jeff:''' (''on laxatives'') If I take all of them at once, [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} do you think there's a danger of liftoff?]]
* ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'': GOB tries to do this in the episode "[[Recap/ArrestedDevelopmentS1E4KeyDecisions "Key Decisions"]] to aid his escape from prison, but first has trouble swallowing the key and later is unable to pass it because of a ShyBladder.

* ''Series/{{Angel}}'': an ex-champion turned DeathSeeker does this to ensure a demon will kill him to get it back; he's actually hidden it in a thermos of coffee, so the demon won't get what he wants.
* In Disney's ''Series/ShakeItUp'' episode "Show It Up", Flynn helps Deuce prepare for the talent show by suggesting he perform magic. During one trick, Deuce is chained to a chair and was supposed to have held the key in his mouth rather than swallow it.
* Played with in an episode of ''Series/ThirtyRock'', when Liz mimes locking her mouth and then swallowing the key. Jack then points out that that makes no sense.

* In one episode of ''Series/HeadOfTheClass'', Dennis leads a protest in the cafeteria, handcuffs himself to a lunch tray rail at the serving line, and tells the teachers he swallowed the key. The janitor later has to cut the chain with a hacksaw to free him.

* In ''[[VideoGame/LastHalfOfDarkness Shadows of the Servants]]'', the doctor swallowed the key to a strongbox before she died. [[spoiler: You can't open the box containing the ashes from her cremation, but can put it in the fireplace so everything ''except'' the key will be destroyed.]]
* One of Papa Morté's goons in ''VideoGame/{{Shadowman}}: 2econd Coming'' swallows the key to the Wild at Heart to keep Mike confined in the bar for what they hoped would be an easy hit job. Too bad for them, Mike quickly dispatches all the goons and simply retrieves the key from their splattered remains.
* ''VideoGame/ProfessorLaytonVsAceAttorney'': Dzibilchaltunchunchucmil does this in guarding the Bell Tower, which causes some problems in retrieving the key to unlock the door.
* ''VideoGame/MadFather'': A good portion of the game is trying to evade danger, such as resurrected corpses and dolls, while trying to unlock the next area. At one point, underground, the player must find a key to progress past a door. The key is really easy to find. An undead dog then comes along and decides to swallow it. Then the player must go on a small quest to knock out the dog and cut open its stomach.

* In one ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'' cartoon where they were doing their take on ''RobinHood'', Tom swallowed the key that went to Robin's cell.
* ''WesternAnimation/StormHawks'': Stork tries to keep the Raptors from getting their hands on a Graviton Crystal by swallowing it.
* On the ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' short "Fin n' Catty", a cat corners a fish inside a shower, so he locks the door and swallows the key. Only then does the cat realize the shower stall is filled with water ([[CatsHateWater which cats hate]], as everyone knows) and he tries to punch the key out of his stomach.

* In ''Mickey and the Beanstalk'' segment of ''Disney/FunAndFancyFree'', the giant attempts to swallow the key when locking Goofy and Donald in a chest, but decides to put it in his pocket which Mickey soon retrieves.

* In ''Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key'', this is done by the titular character entirely by accident: he suffers from ADHD and develops a habit of putting the key in his mouth and then using the string attached to it to pull it back out just before he swallows it. When his exasperated teacher removes the key from its string to discourage this, he still unthinkingly puts the key in his mouth and since there's no string to retrieve it this time...

* In the ''Series/{{CSI}}'' episode "Abra-Cadaver," the killer, a StageMagician who was perfectly willing to kill his family members for the sake of illusions, does this at the end (although Grissom did think to [[GenreSavvy check his mouth]]). Foreshadowed by a mention of the Harry Houdini example below.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Robotboy}}'': Gus did this twice, first to stop Kurt from using the bathroom so Tommy can torture him for Robotboy's whereabouts and second while Tommy fress Robotboy (Ironically, the second example ended the episode with Constantine and Dr. Kamikaze locked outside of their lair in the middle of the ocean).

* "Gatekeeper" by WithinTemptation. Now that this guy [[TheUndead has no metabolism to speak of]] and he's inside with the rest of them, [[SealedEvilInACan well]]...

* On an episode of ''Series/TalesFromTheCrypt'' ("Carrion Death"), a criminal and a cop are handcuffed together. The cop is killed, but he manages to swallow the key before the criminal can get it, forcing the criminal to lug the dead cop along as he attempts to escape across the desert.

* A character in the ''Manga/YuGiOh'' manga does this as part of his hereditary Human Vault job. It's one of the many NightmareFuel moments if you think about how he'd have been prepared for the role.
** Mokuba does this as well, hence his Duelist Kingdom kidnapping in the manga (in the anime, he hides the key in his locket instead).

* In the DonaldDuck cartoon "Trick or Treat", Don locks away all his Halloween candy and swallows the key. A witch then casts a spell on Donald's feet so that they kick out the key.