Line #101 Main/KeyUnderTheDoormat


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12	[[quoteright:350:[[Series/BabylonBerlin https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/key_under_filthy_doormat.jpg]]]]
13
14	->''"20 bucks says I can get in in 20 seconds."''
15	-->-- '''Dr. Gregory House''', ''Series/{{House}}'', before performing the trope
16
17	Do you need to get into your house... or perhaps someone else's house... quickly? Have you suddenly realized you locked your keys ''inside'' your house, so that now you not only can't get your car started, but you can't get into your house to get your keys? What do you do? Why, you look under the doormat, of course!
18
19	Occasionally, the spare key isn't hidden under the doormat, but is rather hidden inside a fake rock, or in a ceramic animal near the door, or even concealed atop the frame of the door itself. There is also a vehicular variant wherein the spare key is hidden above the driver's side sun visor.
20
21	Often TruthInTelevision, despite the advice of every crime prevention leaflet. Compare WeHaveTheKeys, which often occurs after a door is [[ThereWasADoor destroyed or bypassed]] when a less destructive alternative was available.
22	----
23	!!Examples:
24	[[foldercontrol]]
25
26	[[folder:Advertising]]
27	* In a commercial for [[Advertising/EnergizerBunny Energizer batteries]], Count Dracula, who is hired by the Supervolt battery company to steal the Energizer Bunny's battery, gets locked out of his castle chasing the bunny. He has the key to his castle under his "[[VampireVords Velcome]]" mat, but before he can use it to unlock the door, the morning sun rises, and he says, "Oh... great." before it vanquishes him.
28	* Discussed in one of the Creator/FoxKids ads featuring Tom Foolery, in which Foolery advises against this trope and recommends instead leaving a key with a trusted friend or neighbor.
29	[[/folder]]
30
31	[[folder:Comedy]]
32	* Creator/JeffFoxworthy once told a story of going to visit his brother, only to find his brother had to run to work for a brief errand. He'd left a note on the door saying "the key is under the mat."
33	-->'''Foxworthy:''' Your only hope was a blind burglar.
34	[[/folder]]
35
36	[[folder:Comic Books]]
37	* In ''ComicBook/AllStarSuperman'' the key to his Fortress of Solitude is kept under the welcome mat by the entrance. But it's made of White Dwarf star matter and only he can lift it. This backfires when two hostile Kryptonians show up who are also strong enough to lift it.
38	* The parents of Comicbook/JeanGrey keep their spare keys under a fake rock. Unfortunately, Hercules (in ''Comicbook/TheAvengers'' crossover where she resurfaces after ''The Dark Phoenix Saga'') kicks the door down before she could get to it. When she points this out Captain America says they'll write her parents a check for a new door.
39	* In one ''ComicStrip/SpyVsSpy'' strip, the Black Spy hides a key to a door in this fashion, fully intending for the White Spy to steal it, use it and set off the booby-trapped door.
40	[[/folder]]
41
42	[[folder:Comic Strips]]
43	* In the ''ComicStrip/{{Nodwick}}'' strip "Hail to the Thief!", when the gang get word that their group's former rogue, Bezzler, is out of the sanitarium, Artax starts making plans to set up magical wards and fake quarantine signs, then turn invisible and flee. Before they can do any of these things, though, Bezzler wanders in commenting that they still keep the key under the "Go Away" doormat.
44	[[/folder]]
45
46	[[folder:Fan Works]]
47	* ''WebAnimation/TurnaboutStorm'': The key that opens the door to Ace Swift's hotel room was located under a mat, according to Rainbow Dash. Phoenix's [[DeadpanSnarker thoughts]] claim that he also keeps the key to his office under a mat.
48	[[/folder]]
49
50	[[folder:Film -- Animated]]
51	* In the ''WesternAnimation/AllStarSuperman'' movie the key to the Fortress of Solitude is kept under the doormat. Lois is bemused and asks where the big gold key (a staple in Silver Age comics) went. Supes remarks that the doormat method is more secure. This is because the key is made out of dwarf star material and weighs half a million tons.
52	* Subverted in ''WesternAnimation/TheMonkeyKing'': the title character goes to Wangmu's house in Heaven to steal her Elixir of Life, but the door is locked. He picks up a statuette on the porch and finds a key underneath, only to toss the statue through a window and break in that way.
53	[[/folder]]
54
55	[[folder:Film -- Live Action]]
56	* Doc Brown's laboratory in ''Film/BackToTheFuture1'' has one of these. Oddly enough, it's not just a key but a whole keychain! Wouldn't the lump under the rug create a tripping hazard and defeat the mission of a "secret" key?
57	* Subverted in ''Film/TheBourneIdentity''. Jason and Marie are trying to get into Marie's friend's house to hide. Marie starts looking for the spare key, [[CuttingTheKnot but Jason rams the door open with his shoulder]].
58	* A flashback in ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier'' shows us that back in the 40's, pre-serum Steve Rogers kept his house key hidden under a brick just outside his front door.
59	* In Creator/AlfredHitchcock's ''Film/DialMForMurder'', the key under the staircase carpeting is a [[{{Pun}} key]] plot point.
60	* In ''Film/EdgeOfTomorrow'', Rita finds the keys to the minivan above the driver's side sun visor.
61	%%* ''Film/AFairlyOddMovieGrowUpTimmyTurner'': Magnate's he
62	* ''Film/FatalAttraction''. Dan breaks into Alex's apartment using the spare key that he finds on top of the door frame.adquarters has the key hidden under the doormat.
63	* Annie goes to use one she knows her parents keep above their door frame in ''[[Film/FatherOfTheBride1991 Father of the Bride - Part II]]'' but George, her father the protagonist, was woken by the sound of the car pulling up in the middle of the night and lets her in anyway before they have a heart-to-heart about her wanting to move away to Boston for her career.
64	* Subverted in ''Film/FerrisBuellersDayOff''. Ferris looks for the key, but his principal has already taken it.
65	* In the movie ''Film/{{Following}}'' a burglar named Cobb uses a key under a doormat to break into an apartment.
66	* In ''Film/GranTorino'' the key is in the porcelain frog.
67	* In ''Film/GrumpyCatsWorstChristmasEver'', Grumpy Cat tells Crystal to look for car keys in the sun visor. Why would they be there? Because they are in a movie!
68	* ''Film/IndependenceDay'', Jasmine finds the keys to the fire truck above the sun visor.
69	* In ''Film/JohnWickChapter2'', John goes to retrieve his car from Abram Tenosov's "inventory." After pulling the dust cover off the car and quietly getting in, he stops for a moment, then flips down the sun visor, causing the keys to drop into his hand.
70	* ''Film/JustLikeHeaven'': When David locks himself out of the apartment Elizabeth's not-ghost tells him she keeps the spare under the nearby fire extinguisher. At the end of the movie David mentions using the same key to try and jog Elizabeth's memory after she wakes from her coma with no memory of him.
71	* This is how Colt gets into the BigBad's hideout in ''Film/LoadedWeapon1''.
72	* In ''Film/ThePhantomCarriage'', when the hero comes home after his release from prison and finds the door locked, he remembers the key under the doormat.
73	* In ''Literature/TheRailwayChildren'' movie, the man who takes the children to the house in the country from the railway station says that the people who live out there usually leave their keys under the door.
74	%%* ''Film/TheRingTwo''
75	* ''Film/StarTrek2009'': A deleted scene reveals that the young Kirk found the keys to his father's Corvette above the sun visor.
76	* ''Franchise/{{Terminator}}''
77	** In ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay'', the T-800 goes to rip off the steering column housing to hotwire the car...when John Connor smugly shows him the keys are hidden in the sun visor. The next time the cyborg has to steal a car, he looks above the sun visor first and sure enough finds the keys.
78	** ''Film/Terminator3RiseOfTheMachines'': The scene from the second film receives a CallBack. When the T-850 steals a car, he looks above the sun visor, but only finds a watch, so he hotwires it.
79	* Humorously inverted in ''Film/WrongfullyAccused'' where Leslie Nielsen's character picks up a giant key, inside of which is a rock, which he uses to break the window.
80	[[/folder]]
81
82	[[folder:Literature]]
83	* ''Literature/TheAIGang'': As seen in ''Robot Trouble'', Dr. Weiskopf keeps a spare key in a fake rock outside the front door. Wendy calls it "Cute, but not very effective."
84	* ''Literature/TheCatWhoSeries'': In book #9 (''The Cat Who Went Underground''), when Qwill is staying in the Klingenschoen cabin in Mooseville, he notes at one point that a spare key is hidden in a hollow log at the bottom of the log rack on the porch. When considering other places that someone might look for a key (to get in and feed his cats, if something happens to him), he thinks of obvious places like on top of the doorframe or under the doormat.
85	* ''Literature/HannahSwensen'': In ''Apple Turnover Murder'', Hannah and Mike get into a discussion on the subject. Mike doesn't approve of the obvious spots, like under a doormat, a flower pot or inside a fake rock (which is where Hannah happens to keep hers). On the other hand, he thinks Norman's hiding place for his spare key -- inside the mouth of a concrete statue of a moose -- is brilliant when he finds out.
86	* In one of Paul Goble's ''[[Myth/NativeAmericanMythology Iktomi]]'' storybooks, there's a "handwritten" note opposite the title page, reading "GON 2 THE POWWOW--KEY IS UNDER THE MAT." SacredHospitality, or another case of Iktomi not being as smart as he thinks he is?
87	* DiscussedTrope in ''Mr. Bean's Scrapbook'', a tie-in for ''Film/{{Bean}}'', in which Mr. Bean easily finds the key to get into an unfamiliar house because "if you have the choice of hiding your key under a brick or under Kermit the Frog, which do you choose? EXACTLY". In a bit of HypocriticalHumour, the appendix indicates that Mr. Bean ''also'' keeps his spare key under a model of a frog, albeit a photorealistic one.
88	* Subverted in the first chapter of ''Literature/TheTemp'': While explaining how to make life extremely difficult for your temporary office replacement worker, the narrator gives the advice to lock everything useful into the desk drawers, and not to hide the key under the potted plant, because that is the first place she will look. In a later chapter, she notes that a good place to hide a key is in a pen pot under a single tampon, especially from a man, because every man will be too squeamish to look underneath.
89	* ''Mrs. Tiggy Winkle'' does this in the story by Creator/BeatrixPotter.
90	* ''Literature/TheTwits'': Mrs Twit hides the front door key under the mat, which is how the monkeys get into the house.
91	* In the ''Literature/{{Wyatt}}'' novels, one of Wyatt's most common methods of stealing a car is to go to a car park and search around until he finds someone who is keeping a spare key in a magnetic container inside the wheel well.
92	[[/folder]]
93
94	[[folder:Live Action TV]]
95	* In ''Series/TheBernieMacShow'', Bernie gets locked out of his house by the children in a hot day after he punished them and had the air conditioner fixed. With every door and window locked, the last place to look for is the key under the doormat. Brianna was sent to get the key, but was taken by Bernie and leads to a negotiation with the other two kids.
96	* In the cold open of the finale of ''Series/BreakingBad'', Walt steals a car [[spoiler:to get back to Albuquerque]]. After a vain attempt to hotwire it and a close call with a passing police car, he tentatively pulls down the sun visor and, sure enough, the keys drop right in his hand.
97	* Parodied in an episode of ''Series/{{Chucklevision}}'' where the duo are delivering and installing a heavy fireplace. They look under the mat and can't find a key so they assume they got the apartment number wrong when they find a key under the other mat. It turns out the instruction was look under the "cat" as in a little porcelain cat so it turns out they've been renovating (read: wrecking) the wrong place.
98	* In the ''Series/CriminalMinds'' episode "Hope," Garcia's friend, who's been abducted by this week's unsub, keeps a spare key tucked into her door frame. The team points out that this is because the eponymous Hope is her daughter who was abducted eight years ago, and her mother still has (also-eponymous) hope that she'll return one day, and will need the key to get in. They also point out how much easier it made it for the unsub to get close to her, though he didn't use it to abduct her.
99	* In the ''Series/DoctorWho'' telemovie with [=Paul McGann=] in, the car-key version was done with, of all things, the ''TARDIS'' (it's behind the "P" in "Police Box," should you ever need to know).
100	* Subverted in an episode of ''Series/TheDrewCareyShow'', where it was mentioned that Drew kept a ''fake'' key in a fake rock under his welcome mat.
101	* An episode late in the run of ''Series/TheFactsOfLife'' played an interesting and somewhat clever variant. Tootie and Natalie go to the city to visit an artist friend of theirs and find a bum sleeping next to her door. They check the instructions to find the key and they're directed to the bum's head. Sure enough, they remove the bum's hat to find the key resting on his scalp. The "bum" turns out to be a dummy.
102	* ''Series/{{Friends}}'': Ross' ex-girlfriend Mona kept hers in the light fixture near her apartment door which has the unfortunate side effect of making the key really hot to the touch. Apparently Ross warned her how risky it is to keep the spare key so accessible as anyone could find it and let themselves in...which he himself had just done.
103	* ''Series/{{Fringe}}'' has Olivia go to a alternate universe where she breaks into her counterpart's apartment because they hide the spare key in the same place. However, they do not keep their [[spoiler:guns]] in the same place.
104	* In the "St. Christopher's Prayer" episode of ''Series/TheFugitive'' (2000), Richard Kimble tells his sister to leave the front door of the family home unlocked so that he can sneak in to visit his dying father. Unfortunately, another family member unaware of the plan locks the door, leaving Kimble to scramble frantically (he only has a few seconds before the garbage truck that is blocking the view of the house moves and reveals his presence to Inspector Gerard) until he remembers this trope and gets inside JustInTime.
105	* In ''Series/GilmoreGirls'', all of Lorelai Gilmore's neighbors knew that the spare key was in the turtle.
106	* ''Series/TheGrandTour'': Lampshaded by Hammond; after May fails to hotwire a truck they need for their escape, Hammond asks him if he's "not seen every movie ever made," and easily retrieves the keys from the truck's sun visor.
107	* ''Series/{{House}}'' and associates break into Cuddy's house at one point. Chase tells House his plan isn't going to work, then House pulls the key from under a vase, later reasoning that a person like Cuddy probably has several keys stashed within 50 feet of her door.
108	* In the pilot episode of ''Series/IronFist2017'', Danny Rand tries to enter his former residence using a key he knows is hidden outside (on top of the lintel rather than under the mat). In a SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome, the key doesn't fit as the lock has been changed in the fifteen years since he was last there.
109	* In one ''Series/{{Lost}}'' flashback, young Miles found a dead man's apartment key under a white stone rabbit. White rabbits are a motif on the show. As Miles talks to dead people, it was implied that the man told him where the key was.
110	* The cold open to an episode of ''Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle'' sees Malcolm and Reese come home from school to find nobody's there and the doors are locked. Malcolm retrieves the fake rock with the spare key and holds it up in front of Reese who grabs it and uses it to break a window to get inside.
111	* ''Series/PowerRangersZeo'': When Rita and Zedd are fleeing from the Machine Empire, she asks her father if they can stay at his place. He agrees and says he'll leave a spare key under the mat.
112	* In ''Series/{{Psych}}'', Gus wonders how Shawn was able to get into his house, and Shawn points out that the key hidden under a fake rock is a bit obvious for a ''second-floor'' apartment.
113	* ''Series/StarskyAndHutch'': Hutch keeps it on top of the door-frame. None of the repeated times the bad guys break into his place ever seem to convince him to stop doing this.
114	* Parodied on the absurdist show ''Series/StellaUS'', where Michael, Michael & David explain to the landlord that their spare key is kept under the doormat, but it's off at the cleaners and he'll need to go pick it up from there. The landlord comes back about an hour later, flops the mat back down in its place, and lifts it to find the key that suddenly appeared underneath.
115	* In one episode of ''Series/Studio60OnTheSunsetStrip'', Jordan and Danny are locked on the roof of the studio. They try to get the attention of a bum by throwing a rock [[strike:at]] near him. Then Danny remembers there [[strike:is]] was a hide-a-key rock on the roof.
116	* In ''Series/Supergirl2015'', Superman leaves the key to the Fortress of Solitude right in front of the door. It gets covered with snow, considering where it is, but he doesn't even bother with a mat. When Kara laughs at it, James points out that Superman and Kara are just about the only ones who can ''lift'' the thing, considering it's made of super-condensed white dwarf star matter.
117	* In one episode of ''Series/{{Superstore}}'' it's shown that Glen keeps the keys to his car in the front wheel well when they're locked in the store and he tries to get a passersby to retrieve his phone in the car. Unfortunately the guy steals his car.
118	* In the first episode of ''Series/TwoAndAHalfMen'', Alan gets into Charlie's house as his fake key-hiding rock is kept out in the open, due to Charlie often coming home so drunk he wouldn't be able to find it if it was in a pile of rocks.
119	* ''Series/Titans2018''. Dick Grayson enters his old room in the Wayne mansion by climbing up to a window, then removing a spoon hidden in a crevice which he uses to jimmy the window open. Presumably this is from when he used to sneak out of the room as a child.
120	* Lowell did this on ''Series/{{Wings}}'', revealed in an episode where the whole gang goes to Boston to be in the audience of a talk show. Thinking that he may have left his iron turned on at home, he announces to the camera his address and key hiding place, asking someone to check for him. Predictably, this leads to thieves stealing everything he owns. ("Except the iron...which was off!").
121	[[/folder]]
122
123	[[folder:Music]]
124	* Creator/AllanSherman brings this up in his song "Won't You Come Home, Disraeli", in which, as Queen Elizabeth, he sings...
125	-->Now don't leave me flat\
126	The key to the palace is under the mat
127	[[/folder]]
128
129	[[folder:Radio]]
130	* In ''Radio/AdventuresInOdyssey'' Connie jumps from tree to ledge to window in order to get into Mitch's apartment. Mitch tells her that she could have just used the key under the mat. A rather unsafe place for an FBI agent to hide a key though...
131	* In the Radio Drama ''The Father Gilbert Mysteries'' "Where The Heart Is", Mr. Eckhart concludes that someone broke into the church's crypt by using the key hidden under the flower pot beside the door. Father Gilbert chews him out for keeping a key there, as it's the first place anyone would look.
132	* On ''Radio/APrairieHomeCompanion'', there's a fictional inventor that attempts to avert this. He sells Cowpie Key Hiders. In Minnesota, lumps of cow manure are supposedly ubiquitous, and who's gonna look for a key under that? What if it turns out it's not fake? So instead of putting your key under the mat like an idiot, you can put it where nobody wants to look.
133	[[/folder]]
134
135	[[folder:Theme Park]]
136	* At the queue for ''Ride/MuppetVision3D'' at the Ride/DisneyThemeParks, there's a mat with a sign pointing at it, saying "Key Under Mat." Sure enough, anyone curious enough to look will find one glued to the floor.
137	[[/folder]]
138
139	[[folder:Video Games]]
140	* Not quite a video game, but an old text-based computer Adventure style game where you have to ''repair a malfunctioning nuclear reactor'' has you quickly arrive at a locked door where all you can see is the door and the doormat. No prizes for guessing where the key to the door is hidden.
141	* In ''Videogame/AloneInTheDark2008'' you can sometimes find a car key in the sun visor, saving you the tedious business of hotwiring the vehicle.
142	* Double subverted in ''VideoGame/BrokenSwordTheSerpentsCurse''. Nico believes the key to her neighbor's apartment to be under the doormat but it's not there. [[LooseFloorboardHidingSpot It's hidden under the doormat's floorboard.]]
143	* ''VideoGame/BugsBunnyAndTazTimeBusters'': In the cutscene just before facing [[FinalBoss Count Bloodcount]], the duo find the door to his tower is locked. Bugs immediately questions if creepy counts hide their spare keys like everybody else does, and checks under the doormat. As it turns out, yes, vampires do hide their keys the same way as regular folk.
144	* In ''VideoGame/TheCatLady'', there is a puzzle where you have to get the key to break into someone's apartment by cracking open a cat statue holding said key.
145	* ''VideoGame/{{Descent}}'' 3: In mission 10, the door to the CED Lunar Command Base is locked, but there's a keycard in a hollow tower that's right in front of the entrance.
146	* ''VideoGame/HugosHouseOfHorrors'' hides the key to the titular house in a pumpkin on the front porch.
147	* Checking under the front mat of Lefty's in ''VideoGame/LeisureSuitLarry1InTheLandOfTheLoungeLizards'' gets you a snarky comment from the narrator, wondering why you'd expect to find a key there when the door is unlocked.
148	* The first puzzle of ''VideoGame/ManiacMansion'' is getting the front door key from beneath the mat.
149	* A key required for ''VideoGame/MysteryCaseFiles: Return to Ravenhearst'' is on the front porch, under the ''cat''. No, you can't pick the cat up to get it, but bribing it with a mouse works fine.
150	* In ''VideoGame/MysteryOfTimeAndSpace'', there is a key under a doormat. The doormat is on top of a grate for some reason, so after you accidently knock the key down you have to go down and get it.
151	* In ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights'', the key to the Tanglebrook Estate is hidden under the doormat.
152	* In ''VideoGame/{{Rhiannon}}'', you're told outright that the key to the house is under a flowerpot. Note that the keys to everyplace else you'll need to unlock are well hidden.
153	* ''VideoGame/ShadowsOfDoubt'' can generate apartment complexes with doormats, which the player can shift away to check for keys that they can use to enter an apartment. Usually only a few people will actually have hidden their keys there though.
154	* ''VideoGame/StigmatizedProperty'': [[PlayerCharacter The girl's]] classmate keeps a spare key under the potted plant next to the door of his apartment. She needs to use it to get in.
155	* ''VideoGame/ThereIsNoGameWrongDimension'': One puzzle in the first chapter has Game hiding the start button behind a locked door, complete with doormat. You find a key under the mat, but it doesn't fit into the lock on the door. [[spoiler: It actually unlocks one of the flags from the language selection screen, which you can use to retrieve the actual door key.]]
156	* In ''VideoGame/TombRaiderII'', Lara Croft finds the keys in the sun visor for the Jeep during the driving cutscene.
157	* ''VideoGame/TwoPacMan'': A door in level 6 requires a key to open it. It can be found inside a breakable flower pot next to the door.
158	* Early in ''VideoGame/VermillionWatch: Moorgate Accord'', the key you need is under a planter next to the front door.
159	* The ''VideoGame/VirtualFamilies'' game has a key under the doormat that unlocks the shed.
160	[[/folder]]
161
162	[[folder:Visual Novels]]
163	* In ''VisualNovel/{{Melody}}'', when Tim lets the protagonist stay at his house after Bethany kicks him out, he leaves a key in the mailbox. He further instructs his friend to leave the key there himself if he ever decides to go out.
164	[[/folder]]
165
166	[[folder:Web Animation]]
167	* In the [[WebAnimation/HomestarRunner Strong Bad email]] "50 emails", Strong Bad tells an unknown caller:
168	--> '''Strong Bad:''' (whispering) "I'll leave the key under the [[PigLatin at-may]]."
169	[[/folder]]
170
171	[[folder:Webcomics]]
172	* ''Webcomic/CavesAndCritters'': Professional thief Red opens an ancient Molen door that had confounded a team of archaeologists for months, using a key he found in the water feature.
173	* In ''Webcomic/LatchkeyKingdom'', if you find you're not strong enough to move the blocks in the BlockPuzzle, the spare key is on top of the doorframe.
174	* ''Webcomic/MenageA3'' uses the trope once, as a minor plot convenience; when Sonya wants to get into the main characters’ apartment, she remembers that they keep a spare key hidden under a window ledge. (Strip #675, November 22, 2012, NSFW.)
175	[[/folder]]
176
177	[[folder:Web Original]]
178	* In the ''Creator/{{Slimebeast}}'' story ''Lost Episodes'', when the narrator returns to the house where his friend Sid lived and finds it locked, he remembers that Sid’s parents kept a spare key under a fake rock. Inexplicably, it is still there, in spite of the house being repossessed by a bank.
179	[[/folder]]
180
181	[[folder:Western Animation]]
182	* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog'' where Scratch loses his memory and thinks he's Sonic's ally, he recalls that Robotnik leaves the key to his fortress under his "unwelcome" mat.
183	* In the ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' episode "Rabbit Ears", Stan has to get into Tuttle's house, so he looks under a potted plant on the porch and finds a spare key. He uses the potted plant to smash a window, uses the key to brush away bits of broken glass, then reaches in and unlocks the door.
184	* In the first episode of ''WesternAnimation/Ben10AlienForce'', Ben finds the key to the Rustbucket in a fake rock near the door.
185	* In the ''Series/CornerGas Animated'' episode [[Recap/CornerGasAnimatedS1E01BoneDry "Bone Dry"]], Brent needs to get into the trunk of Oscar's car, so he wonders aloud if the spare key is still in the same place. He finds a key above the driver's side sun visor, then [[BaitAndSwitch uses that key to open the glove compartment]], inside which is a lock box with the [[ThePasswordIsAlwaysSwordfish code 1-2-3]]. The lock box contains a Russian nesting doll, and the actual spare key is hidden inside the third doll.
186	* In ''{{WesternAnimation/Gargoyles}}'' Elisa knows that Matt keeps his on top of the doorframe to his apartment. No tape, no string, just a key ready to be knocked off if someone slams the door too hard.
187	* In the WesternAnimation/{{Goofy}} cartoon "Man's Best Friend", Goofy goes out for the evening and hides the house key under the doormat, and then Bowser sleeps on it. Unfortunately, a robber manages to find the key under the doormat, somehow not disturbing Bowser in the process when he lifts it up.
188	* The ''WesternAnimation/SylvesterTheCatAndTweetyBird'' cartoon "WesternAnimation/TweetAndSour": Hoping to keep Sylvester out of the house when she is gone and away from Tweety, Granny hides the house key under the doormat. Unfortunately, she doesn't count on Sylvester already having hidden under the doormat himself!
189	* There is a key under a doormat in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/NedsNewt''. On the doormat is a huge picture of a key and an arrow pointing to one corner of the mat.
190	* Bart did this in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' to get into the locked school. Homer also did it in one episode TWICE, the first time to get into the nuclear power plant, the second time to get into the reactor! And furthermore, even the key inside the plant was hidden under a small rock lying on the pristine floor, potentially subverting this trope. Chief Wiggum did this to get in the police station while Bart's class was waiting outside during a field trip.
191	* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' remembers he keeps a spare key under his doormat after spending one whole episode stuck outside his pineapple.
192	* In the second episode of ''WesternAnimation/XMenEvolution'', Rogue accidentally touches a football player and takes his running/tackling skill and memory. And the knowledge that a spare key to his house was in the gutter above the door.
193	[[/folder]]
194

Context Main / KeyUnderTheDoormat