Line #20 Main/TheStateroomSketch


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3	%% The examples have been alphabetized. Please put any new example in its proper place in the folder rather than at the end.
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9	[[quoteright:325:[[Film/ANightAtTheOpera1935 https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_0739.JPG]]]]
10	[[caption-width-right:325: "Hey, is it my imagination, or is it getting crowded\
11	in here?"]]
12
13	A character has just moved into a small room the size of a closet. For added hilarity, it may even ''be'' an actual closet. This person barely has room to stand up in, so what's the first thing that happens? He gets visitors. Lots and lots of visitors. It often climaxes with one last person (preferably the comic foil, as per Margaret Dumont) opening the door and everyone tumbling out, ExplodingCloset-style.
14
15	Originally done by the Creator/MarxBrothers in ''Film/ANightAtTheOpera1935'', seen right. All other versions of this gag are most likely an homage to the original.
16
17	Compare with ClownCarBase. Can be combined with the ClosetShuffle for extra hilarity if the recipient is trying to hide some of the visitors from the others.
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19	----
20	!!Examples:
21
22	[[foldercontrol]]
23
24	[[folder:Animation]]
25	* In Academy Award-winning 1981 short ''Animation/{{Tango}}'', a little boy climbs into an apartment to retrieve his ball. Then a nursing mother enters. Then a schoolgirl. Then a man carrying a package. Then more and more and more people -- a nude woman, a man with a dog, a plumber carrying a toilet, etc. -- until ''36 people'' are cycling through the tiny studio apartment.
26	[[/folder]]
27
28	[[folder:Fanfiction]]
29	* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/2438480/11/Harry-Potter-and-the-Book-of-Magical-Maladies Harry Potter and the Book of Magical Maladies]]'' Remus makes several Portkeys to get everyone to Grimmauld Place for Harry's sixteenth birthday. Due to Remus' inexperience with Portkey creation, everyone ends up in a closet together.
30	[[/folder]]
31
32	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
33	* Done in ''Film/BrainDonors'' with Volare's dressing room. Appropriate, given that the movie is a remake of ''Film/ANightAtTheOpera1935''.
34	* The Buster Keaton gag from ''Film/TheCameraman'' involves just two people, Buster and a significantly bigger man. But it's a tiny changing room at the pool, so two is enough to make a crowd.
35	* ''Film/{{Footnote}}'': For some reason, the Israel Prize committee meets with Uriel, to deliver the bad news, in a ridiculously tiny closet of a room. People have to stand on chairs and move them around anytime anyone has to enter or exit, and Uriel keeps hitting another chair every time he opens the door.
36	* ''Film/ANightAtTheOpera1935'' is the {{Trope Namer\|s}}. In the scene in question, Groucho boards a ship and finds he has been booked into a stateroom so tiny that it barely holds him and his luggage. Inside his luggage, however, he finds stowaways Harpo, Chico and the movie's romantic hero. Then in come the maid, the electrician, some waiters with food, a girl looking for her aunt... It ends with Margaret Dumont opening the door and everyone tumbling out.
37	* In the Creator/MarxBrothers' ''A Night in Casablanca'', a restaurant dining room is filled not only with guests, but also tables and chairs.
38	* ''Film/SomeLikeItHot'' has a scene aboard a train in which a passel of female musicians cram into Jack Lemmon's sleeping berth for a party, to similar effect.
39	[[/folder]]
40
41	[[folder:Literature]]
42	* In ''Literature/CurseOfTheWolfgirl'' fashion designer Thrix is preparing for a date and is visited by almost every non-villain character.
43	* The children's book ''Literature/TheMitten'' is about a mole who finds a lost mitten and climbs in to keep warm, followed by a rabbit, then a hedgehog, etc etc...
44	* In the ''Literature/{{Relativity}}'' story "Cricket", four people all end up in the same closet. The "door opens and everyone falls out" part happens, not because someone on the outside opened it, but because someone on the inside sees [[SpidersAreScary a giant spider]] and panics.
45	[[/folder]]
46
47	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
48	* ''Series/TheBobNewhartShow'' has an episode where Bob and Emily prepare to embark on a two-month cruise, which climaxes with a huge crowd of people jamming into the Hartleys' cabin on the ship to see them off, including Howard, Jerry, Carol, Bob's entire therapy group, the ship's stewards... and one random guy who was walking down the hall and "was just suddenly sucked right in".
49	-->'''Howard:''' The first one who makes a Marx Brothers joke gets it.
50	* In an episode of ''Series/FlightOfTheConchords'', Jemaine moves into a new apartment, which is really just an empty cleaning supply closet. The first thing he does is invite over everyone he knows for a housewarming party, which naturally spills out into the hallway.
51	* In ''Series/TheGoesWrongShow'' episode "The Pilot (not the pilot)", the staircase to everyone's quarters is one step and a trompe l'oeil painting of a staircase, which Chris discovers when he walks into it. Naturally, the script calls for each character to return to their quarters, and when Chris's crutch gets jammed in a coatrack, they have to fit ''that'' in too, and then ''close the door....''
52	* ''Series/{{MASH}}'' does this in one episode when the doctors have to cram into a one-man tent to accommodate an overflow of wounded. Alan Alda's Groucho Marx impression shows up, of course, to quote the original's line, "Hello, room service? Send up a larger room!"
53	* ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'': Elaine [[ItMakesSenseInContext moves into a janitor's closet so she can order food]], and Jerry and the gang drop by.
54	* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'': A confirmed homage in "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS02E02TheCircle The Circle]]", though it's in Kira's large quarters rather than a closet and it's pretty much friends barging in to wish her farewell or argue why she shouldn't leave. All done in one take, though the final cut has reaction shots cut in.
55	* ''Series/ThatMitchellAndWebbLook'' has a series of sketches set in an absurdly small and cramped office. Although there are never more than 3 or 4 people in it at a time it's also full of office equipment such as a desk, water cooler and filing cabinet.
56	* ''Series/TheSuiteLifeOfZackAndCody'': Actual closet variant, completes the homage by having their mother open the door so that everyone tumbles out.
57	* ''Series/YesMinister'' Hacker is in a small train cabin reading an advance copy of a speech to be given in front of the Queen by an African leader who's just come to power. It encourages the Scots and the Irish to "throw off the imperialist yoke". First his Permanent Secretary, then the Foreign Secretary, the Press Officer and Undersecretary of the Foreign Office join him. Sir Humphrey lampshades this saying "Welcome to the standing committee."
58	[[/folder]]
59
60	[[folder:Music]]
61	* ''Series/SesameStreet'' did this on the album ''Bert & Ernie Sing-Along'', where Ernie brings a piano into the bathroom while Bert is taking a bath and invites the rest of the street gang over.
62	[[/folder]]
63
64	[[folder:Music Videos]]
65	* In the video for "Girls Just Want to Have Fun", Music/CyndiLauper invites so many people to her bedroom party that they fall through the door.
66	[[/folder]]
67
68	[[folder:Radio]]
69	* ''Radio/OurMissBrooks'': In the episode "Oo-Oo-Me-Me-Tocoludi-Gucci-Moo-Moo". Miss Brooks and Mrs. Davis had spent their summer vacation in a tiny house-trailer Miss Brooks nicknamed "mousie". While waiting for a perspective buyer to show up, Miss Brooks and Mrs. Davis clean the trailer. Unfortunately, Walter Denon, Harriet Conklin and Mr. Conklin all come to visit.
70	[[/folder]]
71
72	[[folder:Webcomics]]
73	* Done with a train compartment in ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'', [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20140326 starting here]], and continuing over the next two months of comics.
74	[[/folder]]
75
76	[[folder:Western Animation]]
77	* Done in ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}},'' in "Hercule Yakko". Dot name-drops ''Night at the Opera''. Includes a VisualPun as well: a map of the continental 48 U.S. states on the door.
78	* Set up and subverted early on in ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}''. Fry initially stays in Bender's tiny, closet-like apartment (since robots don't need a lot of personal space)... until he finds out that the apartment's "closet" is actually a full-sized apartment.
79	[[/folder]]
80
81	[[folder:Real Life]]
82	* Applied to a whole house by the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berners_Street_hoax Berners Street Hoax]]. As part of a bet, one man sent out hundreds of letters requesting visitors, tradesmen, and deliverymen to visit. They duly did, attracting in turn more rubberneckers who read about the stunt in the newspapers and wanted to see it for themselves.
83	* Done to William Gaines, publisher of ''Magazine/MadMagazine''. Gaines was a big Marx Brothers fan, and a bunch of his friends dropped by for a visit. He quickly realized what was happening, and found it ActuallyPrettyFunny.
84	* Sardines, a usually indoor variant of Hide and Seek in which winning or losing is beside the point. One person hides--and when others find them, they join the growing number of participants in the hiding place. Typical hiding places are closets and dormitory shower stalls.
85	[[/folder]]

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