History Main / TiedUpOnThePhone

[[quoteright:200:[[Webcomic/BugMartini https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tied_up_on_the_phone.jpg]]]]

* In ''TheSilenceOfTheHams'' when Jo is on the phone walking while strangling several people (one of them is hanging clothes) and continues talking while leaving station. He hangs up the phone in his car dragging them along while driving.

* A running gag in the [[WebVideo/{{Fred}} Fred movie]] is that because Fred can never stop moving, he has to untangle himself from the cord at the end of every phone conversation.
* In ''TheSilenceOfTheHams'' when Jo is on the phone walking while strangling several people (one of them is hanging clothes) and continues talking while leaving station. He hangs up the phone in his car dragging them along while driving.

* In the film ''Film/NineToFive'', Doralee Rhodes rips the phone cord out of the wall and ties up her boss Frank Hart with it to prevent him from calling the police on her, Violet Newstead, and Judy Bernly for their accidental attempt of poisoning him and covering up the evidence.
* One of the {{Accidental Murder}}s in ''Film/{{Detour}}'' Vera was strangled to death when she passed out with the cord wrapped around her throat and Al yanked on the cord from the other side of a shut door in order to stop her calling the cops.

* In the ''Series/DoctorWho'' story "Terror of the Autons", the Doctor's phone cord ''deliberately'' ties him up -- its plastic covering is possessed by the Nestene Consciousness.

* Happens in ''Webcomic/BetterDays'', where a young Fisk is talking to his mom and...

* One of the inevitable results of old-style telephone receivers, where the handset was permanently attached to the receiver by a coiled cord, was how quickly the connecting cord ceased to be a neatly organised smooth coil. It would inevitably tangle, snag, knot, loop back on itself, and tended to somehow double over on itself, until the connecting wire between handset and receiver was effectively half its original length. Anyone picking up the handset to such a phone would drag the whole thing up off its table and find it swinging in the air. [[TheSouthpaw Left-handed users]] soon found that the arrangement favored right-handed people -- both in the direction of coiling, and in the way the headset was meant to be returned to its rest with the connecting wire on the right-hand side. Any old-style phone regularly used by left-handed people would unravel its coils twice as fast (the natural tendency being for a left-hander to return the handset to the rest with the coil-connected end on the ''left''.) Any household with both left and right-handed people would discover their shared phone suffered from Garden Hose Syndrome -- it became an utter tangled mess very quickly.

* The butler in ''Disney/OliverAndCompany'' is watching a wrestling match on TV and getting caught up in the action when the phone rings, and he swings around so hard when answering it that he gets tangled up in the cord.

* In one of the ''Police Story'' movies, Creator/JackieChan is alone in the squad room and so has to answer several phones ringing at the same time. He gets rather confused and ends up placing the receivers on the wrong telephones, leading to the room being strung with telephone cords.

* The animated film ''WesternAnimation/FreddieAsFR07'' has a character who is constantly doing this to himself with long phone conversations.

* In one of the ''Film/PoliceStory'' movies, Creator/JackieChan is alone in the squad room and so has to answer several phones ringing at the same time. He gets rather confused and ends up placing the receivers on the wrong telephones, leading to the room being strung with telephone cords.

* In ''TheSilenceOfTheHams'' when Jo is on the phone walking while strangling several people until leaving the station hanging up the phone in his car dragging them along while driving.

* In the ''Series/DoctorWho'' story "Terror of the Autons", the Doctor's phone cord ''deliberately'' ties him up -- it's an undercover agent for a race of sentient plastic creatures.

* In ''SilenceOfTheHams'' when Jo is on the phone walking while strangling several people until leaving the station hanging up the phone in his car dragging them along while driving.

[[AC: {{Film}}]]

* PlayedForDrama in ''Film/{{Mirage 1965}}'' when a character is strangled to death with a phone cord.

[[AC: LiveActionTV]]

[[AC: NewspaperComics]]
* In ''ComicStrip/{{FoxTrot}}'', at one point [[PhoneaholicTeenager Paige]] is on the phone, wandering about the house. In the final panel, the perspective widens and we see that she's ensnared every member of the house in the phone cord.
* ''ComicStrip/{{Zits}}'' has had Jeremy do this by moving from phone to phone in the house, stretching out the cord on one phone till he can pick up the receiver on the next.

[[AC: {{Poetry}}]]

[[AC: ProfessionalWrestling]]

[[AC: {{Theatre}}]]

[[AC: {{Webcomics}}]]

[[AC: WesternAnimation]]
* The animated film ''WesternAnimation/FreddieAsFR07'' has a character who is constantly doing this to himself with long phone conversations.
* The butler in ''Disney/OliverAndCompany'' is watching a wrestling match on TV and getting caught up in the action when the phone rings, and he swings around so hard when answering it that he gets tangled up in the cord.

[[AC: Real Life]]
* One of the inevitable results of old-style telephone receivers, where the handset was permanently attached to the receiver by a coiled cord, was how quickly the connecting cord ceased to be a neatly organised smooth coil. It would inevitably tangle, snag, knot, loop back on itself, and tended to somehow double over on itself, until the connecting wire between handset and receiver was effectively half its original length. Anyone picking up the handset to such a phone would drag the whole thing up off its table and find it swinging in the air. [[TheSouthpaw Left-handed users]] soon found that the arrangement favoured right-handed people - both in the direction of coiling, and in the way the headset was meant to be returned to its rest with the connecting wire on the right-hand side. Any old-style phone regularly used by left-handed people would unravel its coils twice as fast (the natural tendency being for a left-hander to return the handset to the rest with the coil-connected end on the ''left''.) Any household with both left and right handed people would discover their shared phone suffered from Garden Hose Syndrome - it became an utter tangled mess very quickly.

* One of the inevitable results of old-style telephone receivers, where the handset was permanently attached to the receiver by a coiled cord, was how quickly the connecting cord ceased to be a neatly organised smooth coil. It would inevitably tangle, snag, knot, loop back on itself, anmd tended to somehow double over on itself until the connecting wire between handset and receiver was effectively half its original length. Anyone picking up the handset to such a phone would drag the whole thing up off its table and find it swinging in the air. Left-handed users soon found that the arrangement favoured right-handed people - both in the direction of coiling, and in the way the headset was meant to be returned to its rest with the connecting wire on the right-hand side. Any old-style phone regularly used by left-handed people would unravel its coils twice as fast (the natural tendency being for a left-hander to return the handset to the rest with the coil-connected end on the ''left''.) Any household with both left and right handed people would discover their shared phone suffered from Garden Hose Syndrome - it became an utter tangled mess very quickly.

* PlayedForDrama in ''Film/{{Mirage}}'' when a character is strangled to death with a phone cord.

!!Examples

* ''ComicStrip/{{Zits}}'' has had Jeremy do this by moving from phone to phone in the house, stretching out the cord on one phone till he can pick up the reciever on the next.

* In one ''Webcomic/{{Bug}}'' [[http://www.bugcomic.com/comics/phone-home/ comic]], the main character says that one of the nice things about growing up in a home with a very long phone cord was the ability to clothesline his sister and MakeItLookLikeAnAccident.

* The butler in ''WesternAnimation/OliverAndCompany'' is watching a wrestling match on TV and getting caught up in the action when the phone rings, and he swings around so hard when answering it that he gets tangled up in the cord.

* In an early episode of ''Series/{{Soap}}'' Danny tries to kill Burt by wrapping a phone cord around his neck. Burt, being oblivious to the murder attempt, takes the handset and says, "Hello?"

* In ''NewspaperComics/{{Foxtrot}}'', at one point [[PhoneaholicTeenager Paige]] is on the phone, wandering about the house. In the final panel, the perspective widens and we see that she's ensnared every member of the house in the phone cord.

* At one point in a ProfessionalWrestling match, TheRock used a phone cord to strangle MickFoley

* An insanely long phone cord used for {{Slapstick}} purposes is one of the few bits in ''Theatre/NoisesOff'' which actually goes as planned.

* One ''Webcomic/{{Bug}}'' [[http://www.bugcomic.com/comics/phone-home/ comic]] says that one of the nice things about growing up in a home with a very long phone cord was the ability to clothesline his sister and MakeItLookLikeAnAccident.
* ''Webcomic/{{Zits}}'' has had Jeremy do this by moving from phone to phone in the house, stretching out the cord on one phone till he can pick up the reciever on the next.

* The butler in ''WesternAnimation/OliverAndCompany'' is watching a wrestling match and getting caught up in the action when the phone rings, and he swings around so hard when answering it that he gets tangled up in the cord.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' episode "De Plane! De Plane!", Doofenshmirtz manages to trap Perry the Platypus in a phone cord for a while.