Line #34 Main/ParallelParking


1	[[quoteright:350:[[Webcomic/NobodyScores https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/exasperation_st_4305.png]]]]
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3	Parallel Parking is one of the most difficult things to do when you're driving. This is something that will get almost anybody nervous, especially during a DrivingTest, and would try avoiding. That, or somehow a character can [[ImprobableParkingSkills pull off]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REpXf0cmJ64 something daring and spectacular]] doing it.
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5	[[ParkingProblems Less skilled drivers will usually bump into the cars in front of and/or behind the spot they're either entering or leaving]].
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7	----
8	!!Examples:
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11	[[folder:Advertising]]
12	* A 21st Century Insurance ad has the recurring guy in the ads use one car to deliberately ram two others while parallel parking as the narrator talks about the comparisons in the cost to repair them.
13	* Some car ads nowadays will show a car parallel parking [[TechnologyMarchesOn itself]] as a selling point.
14	* There's a Mentos commercial where some jerk pulls into an open parking spot right when our heroine wants to leave, sandwiching her in. Cue a Mentos and a bright idea; she recruits the help of some beefy construction workers to pick up her car and ease it out. This was also parodied in the Music/FooFighters music video for "Big Me".
15	[[/folder]]
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17	[[folder:Film -- Animation]]
18	* Gru from ''WesternAnimation/DespicableMe1'' is perfectly able to parallel park, even though his car puts a semitrailer to shame. He deliberately rams into the cars in front of and behind him anyway. [[ForTheEvulz 'Cause he's evil]].
19	* The spectacular one is done in ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles1'', when Mr. Incredible lands the [[ItMakesSenseInContext van that was launched from a rocket]], then skids perfectly into a vacant parallel spot.
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22	[[folder:Film -- Live Action]]
23	%%* ''Film/AceVenturaWhenNatureCalls'': ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPM7ugLeXhY Li~ike a glove!]]''
24	* After Annie parks in ''Film/AnnieHall'':
25	-->'''Alvy:''' Don't worry. We can walk to the curb from here.
26	* ''Film/TheBluesBrothers'': Elwood J. Blues has to be one of the best in history. Able to do an e-brake slide into any spot.
27	* ''Film/BonnieAndClyde'': While the title characters rob a bank, their driver C.W. Moss parallel parks down the street and has trouble getting out as they make their getaway. This gives one of the bank tellers enough time to jump on the car's running board, and when Clyde shoots him, he becomes the first murder victim of their crime spree.
28	* [[MundaneUtility Using chi powers to]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rt8-S_R3C98 parallel park]] is one of the things Sing wants to promote in ''Film/ShaolinSoccer''.
29	* The bodyguard Tyrone in ''Film/{{Snatch}}'', who'd earlier been talked up as a great driver, smashes hard into a van (ironically containing the guy his bosses are looking for) while backing into a space "big enough for a jumbo jet".
30	-->"It was at a funny angle."\
31	"It's behind you, Tyrone! When you back up, things come from behind you!"
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34	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
35	* In ''Series/SeventhHeaven'', Mary couldn't parallel park during the driving test. She resorted to a crying routing on the evaluator to get the license.
36	* Every season of ''Series/CanadasWorstDriver'' has a parallel parking challenge, but the most extreme may well have been in Season 2. It required the nominees to reverse a Winnebago over a hundred metres uphill, then park between a Mercedes and a BMW. At least two nominees parked perfectly. Others... well, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin see the show's title]].
37	* One time on ''The Late Show With Creator/DavidLetterman'', they had a remote camera watching some 16-year-olds take their driving test. The parallel parking was particularly bad. For that matter, a semi-recurring segment is having interns parallel park outside the Ed Sullivan Theater.
38	* Reese's driving test in ''Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle'' frustrates him to the point that it turns into a low-speed police chase, which continues for hours until he's nearly out of gas, at which point he leads the LemmingCops round the entire test run, acing every obstacle and finishing with an inch-perfect parallel park. [[MundaneMadeAwesome What do you mean, it's not awesome]]?
39	* ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'': During the traffic safety film ''Film/XMarksTheSpot'', an early scene has a MatchCut of a car fading into a narrow gap between two cars parked curbside. [[Recap/MysteryScienceTheater3000S02E10KingDinosaur Tom Servo remarks]], "Ah, parallel ''universe'' parking." The car's driver has to leave the space the old-fashioned way -- as Crow puts it, "He uses the Braille system."
40	* ''Series/MythBusters'' tried to determine whether men or women were better drivers, and one of the tests was parallel parking. It was a statistical draw; women tended to either easily place the car precisely or panic and mess up, while men tended to place the car at a "good enough" point and thus showed less deviation from the mean.
41	* On ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'', George actually claims to be really good at parallel parking; he just didn't count on another guy trying to drive into the space front first while he was backing up. [[CavemenVsAstronautsDebate A massive, all-night argument begins between the two drivers over whether front-first parallel parking is acceptable in the civilized world]].
42	%%** Also ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7bJUc4qTNw this]]'' gem with Kramer's Impala in a tight space.
43	* ''Series/TopGear'':
44	** One episode involved James May and Jeremy Clarkson driving huge classic cars around London to showcase how fantastic (read: impractical) these cars are in the modern day. One of the producer's challenges involved parallel parking in downtown London, which, as it turns out, was impossible for the cars to do as they are, in fact, longer than the parking spaces themselves.
45	** Another episode had them trying to determine how practical Italian Supercars are in London ([[AwesomeButImpractical see above]]), the parking test being made even more difficult by the cars' poor rearward visibility [[WithFriendsLikeThese and the hosts secretly pushing the other cars closer together to make the task impossible]].
46	** Yet another segment involved demonstrating the automatic parking system fitted to a car only for it to miss the other cars and hit the wall behind them. After two failed attempts Richard Hammond, who was in the car operating the system, realised he'd accidentally set up the system incorrectly and placed the target area on the wall instead of in the gap between cars. One quick adjustment later the car parked istelf perfectly.
47	* A ''Series/Tosh0'' bit had various stereotypical poor drivers ([[AsianDrivers an Asian woman]], a 15-year-old girl with her learner's permit, etc.) try to parallel park a massive Hummer. The only one who succeeded was the girl.
48	[[/folder]]
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50	[[folder:Radio]]
51	* ''Radio/OurMissBrooks'': In "Taking the Rap for Mr. Boynton", Miss Brooks "helps" Mr. Boynton parallel park his car. [[WomenDrivers She advises him to back up just a little more . . . resulting in him crashing into Mr. Conklin's new car.]]
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54	%%[[folder:Video Games]]
55	%%* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyO6QnhTEqY This video]] from ''VideoGame/{{Halo 3}}''. Really, it's possible in any video game that lets you control the vehicles to a similar degree.
56	%%[[/folder]]
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58	[[folder:Webcomics]]
59	* In ''Webcomic/NobodyScores'', every attempt at parallel parking results in [[EpicFail increasingly implausible accidents]].
60	* In ''Webcomic/WapsiSquare'', Tina breaks her wrist while parallel parking. She [[NoodleIncident runs over it]].
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63	[[folder:Western Animation]]
64	* In one [[WesternAnimation/ClassicDisneyShorts Disney short]] "[[WesternAnimation/TwoGunGoofy Two-Gun Goofy]]", Pete rides into a Western town and parallel parks his horse, bumping into those in front and behind him.
65	* WesternAnimation/{{Doug}}'s sister Judy once failed to get her driver's license after failing to correctly parallel park. She finally got it right at the end [[YouWereTryingTooHard when most of her concentration was on chewing Doug out]] for having promised she would drive him and Patti somewhere, which was why he needed her to pass in the first place.
66	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'':
67	** The first episode has Leela saying that she can fly the ship, as long as she isn't asked to parallel park.
68	** In one episode, Amy complains that she is useless at parallel parking, and then easily drives in since hovercars can just move sideways. [[AsianDrivers She then suddenly moves forwards and back to hit the two cars anyway]]. Hey, she ''said'' she was bad at it.
69	* In the ''WesternAnimation/HouseOfMouse'' episode "Dining Goofy", Goofy took parallel parking ''[[LiteralMinded literally]]'' and stacked various cars on top of each other (including WesternAnimation/{{Cinderella}}'s coach, [[Film/TheLoveBug Herbie]], and a [[Film/{{Tron}} lightcycle]].
70	* A ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' short titled "Wild Wife" had the housewife protagonist speedily hit the parked cars in front and back of her twice apiece. This is probably a [[WomenDrivers "woman driver" joke]].
71	* ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'':
72	** Oone episode focuses on Candace practicing this... with monster trucks.
73	** Also comes up in a later episode when Candace is practicing driving with her mom. Candace's neuroses over her brothers, and later some unintended interference from Doofenshmirtz, ends up resulting in her becoming a textbook example of DrivesLikeCrazy. However, even Candace's mom had to admit that Candace [[CallBack really had parallel parking down]].
74	* ''[[WesternAnimation/PixarShorts Pixar Popcorn]]'': The ''WesternAnimation/Cars'' short "Unparalleled Parking" features the residents of Radiator Springs trying to parallel park.
75	* ''WesternAnimation/WeBareBears'': In "Road Trip", it's revealed one of the few things [[TheAce Ice Bear]] isn't good at is parallel parking.
76	[[/folder]]

Context Main / ParallelParking