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It's a tie game with no score.
A guy meets a cute girl. They have drinks, maybe lunch; witty banter is exchanged.
She takes him up to a hotel room. She produces rope (or sometimes handcuffs) and suggests he be chained to the bed and... well... kinkiness will ensue.
The guy always enthusiastically agrees. At which point she cheerfully robs him blind and leaves, leaving the robbed (and naked) guy stuck until someone finds him.
A prime example of Comedic Sociopathy in that the victim is not only robbed (as in a mugging), but deeply, deeply humiliated in a public way while the trope is (almost always) played entirely for laughs at his expense.
Sometimes the setup is used for dramatic, rather than comedic effect, as the person who was chained to the bed is now helpless and at the mercy of the person who tied them up or whoever discovers him. In the comic example the victim is nearly Always Male; in the dramatic example the victim might be male or female. If it is a woman chained to a bed it's much more likely that it's deadly serious.
Compare Chained to a Rock and Bound and Gagged. Often Fetish Fuel. May lead to Cuffs Off Rub Wrists.
Examples:
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Advertising
- This is the subject of a credit card advert in the UK.
- Also the subject of a Capital FM advert where a man gets chained to a bed and can't reach the phone so he can call the station to win the contest.
- Another British example, a car advert has a couple enjoying an improbably sexy dinner followed by aborted bondage on the stairs. He is left cuffed to the bannister staring at a piece of paper which reads "Ask before you borrow it."
- This
ad for, believe it if you can, a shoe store. No, it doesn't make any more sense to us.
Anime and Manga
- Done (mostly) non-sexually and dead serious in Zombie Loan.
- Otome Chibaku Yuugi has this for drama
- This is similar to Yamazaki Sakura's prefered source of revenue in Blue Seed; she pretends to be a prostitute, insists that the guy take a shower, and then swipes his wallet. Hilariously, when one of them suggests some BDSM, she flips out on him.
- Played straight in a side story in the manga Mel Kano.
- In the Please Teacher! OVA, Hatsuho drags Kei to a love hotel against his will and ties him to the bed, in order to spice up Kei and Mizuho's married life, or possibly so she could just have video footage.
- To Love-Ru have one episode where Rito is tied up in a bed naked by the Amazon queen, who was about to have her way with him only to be interrupted by Lala.
Comic Books
- Male on female version: Wallace does this to Delia in Hell And Back, to restrain her after realising she's working for the enemy.
- Tulip does this to Jesse in Preacher and leaves him tied up for the whole day as revenge for leaving her behind when he went to Masada.
- Jesse was also tied to a bed by Miss Outlash. But she did knock him out first. And dress him in a Nazi uniform. Which was a bit awkward when his black female deputy encountered him walking around in said uniform.
- The Adventures Of Barry Ween. Barry Ween left one of his male enemies dressed in lingerie and handcuffed to a bed in a sleazy motel room. With another man. And no memory of what happened.
- In the EC Comics story "Bedtime Gory!" (Haunt of Fear #18), a woman ties her murderer husband to a four-poster bed, promising she'll help make him a "big man." The bed turns out to be a Procrustean rack.
Film
- As seen in the image above, Sherlock Holmes walks right into this trap in the 2009 film. Although in this case he was drugged unconscious first. And to add insult to injury, the key was left under that pillow.
- In the very dark drug comedy Spun, the protagonist ties a girl to his bed, duct-tapes her eyes and mouth shut, and leaves her there for days.
- In Heartbreakers, Sigourney Weaver's character is tracked down by her ex-husband (well, the most recent one, anyway) in the midst of her scheming to capture the next one. He begs her to take him back. Being too busy to deal with him just at the moment, she persuades him to let her tie him to her hotel bed blindfolded, then takes off and leaves him to be discovered by the maid. Who doesn't exactly rob him, but does refuse to let him go until he offers her a bribe. Incredibly, he later teams up with this character and her daughter to enact another scheme.
- Susan Sarandon ties Tim Robbins to the bed in Bull Durham, just to read Walt Whitman to him.
- Subverted in the Irish film When Brendan Met Trudy. Brendan, who is Genre Savvy has been seriously rattled by news reports that a woman has been running around chaining up unsuspecting men and castrating them. When Trudy (who Brendan already knows lied about her job) turns up with the paraphenalia and starts chaining him to a bed, he not unnaturally panics. Turns out she really was only looking for consensual, kinky sex. In a further twist she does in fact turn out to be a thief.
- In Ilsa: She-Wolf of the SS, Ilsa is tricked into being tied to her bed by Wolfe, believing that he's into S&M. Instead, Wolfe leaves her there, escaping the concentration camp. When the Nazis storm the camp, Ilsa believes they're going to rescue her. However, they shoot her in the head. This didn't stop three more sequels, though.
- Sex Drive: Lance lets the gas station attendant he met less than an hour previously handcuff him to the bed in her trailer. She asks if he wants to try the "rolling brownout." He quickly agrees, then asks: "Wait, brown?" he is next seen running naked out of the cornfield, carrying the headboard which he is still attached to.
- In Wedding Crashers. one of the characters gets tied to his bed and is at the mercy of first his girlfriend and later her brother.
- The Australian movie Envy has this happen to the protagonist's teenaged son, although the "kinky sex" bit is absent.
- National Lampoon 's Dorm Daze. The plot involves a handbag full of stolen money. At one point, a guy offers a woman half the money in exchange for a good time. She tells him "By the time I'm done with you, you'll give me all of it." After handcuffing him to a chair: "Okay, I'm done with you."
- Something Wild. A woman (Melanie Griffith) lures a man (Jeff Daniels) into being handcuffed to a bed, then makes him call his place of work and tell them he's taking the rest of the day while she's sexually stimulating him.
- In The French Connection Gene Hackman's character wakes up like this and his partner lets him out. Played to suggest this is not a particularly unusual occurrence for him.
- In the slasher Valentine, Paige (Denise Richards) responds to a guy's advances with this (as well as a blindfold). After asking if he still wanted her to "wax it," she takes one of the nearby candles and pours melted wax on him.
- In 40 Days and 40 Nights, the protagonist has given up all forms of sex for Lent due to a string of unfulfilling relationships, but as he nears the end of his last day he's starting to crack. So he asks his roommate to handcuff him to his bed so he doesn't give in to the urge to "help himself". He wakes up just in time to discover his ex-girlfriend broke into the apartment and raping him while unconscious just to win a bet, and of course his love interest enters the scene just in time to get the wrong idea. He has to apologize to her, with the logical inference that if you're a man who's raped trying to fulfill your vow of chastity, it's your own fault.
- In Hostage, Jennifer Smith (Michelle Horn) is tied to a bed by psycho serial killer mercenary Mars (Ben Foster). She's rescued in the nick of time by her kid brother before Mars can do anything rapey. In somewhat of a fulfillment of the quote above, Mars is later killed during a confrontation with Bruce Willis (although not shot in the face).
- In Idle Hands, when things are getting hot and heavy with Molly, Anton ties his own hand to the bed. He's doing it for her safety, but she thinks he's just being kinky.
- In A Very Long Engagement an old man is being tied to a bed by The Vamp Tina Lombardi.
Folk Lore
- A moderately famous urban legend has this happening to a man who is handcuffed to a bed in anticipation of kinky sex. She then leaves the room and a man dressed as Batman jumps out of the closet and rapes him. That's pretty much it.
- A similar urban legend is about a man tying his wife to the bed so he can play a "Batman saves the girl" role play scene. But during the fun he jumped onto the bed and smashed his head on the ceiling fan, knocking him unconscious. The woman had to call for help until the police kicked in the door to save them. (The Big Book of Urban Legends, a book of short comic-strip treatments of various ULs, had this one illustrated by Kevin Maguire of Justice League International fame.)
- There is also The Odyssey, where Hephaestus chains Aphrodite and Ares to a bed as revenge for Aphrodite cheating on him. Aesop about 'smart outstrips the swift'.
- Although there's a difference between 'guy stupidly lets a girl tie him to the bed' and 'guy and girl are busy on the bed when a net of golden chains made by girl's angry husband traps both of them'.
Jokes
- There is a joke about a man waking up to his wife giving him a silk cord and telling him: "Tie me up and do whatever you wish." He ties her up and goes fishing.
Literature
- The trope is played not just for drama, but for outright terror in the Stephen King novel Geralds Game, which begins with a woman being handcuffed to a bed out in the middle of nowhere by her husband, who then dies of a heart attack. And she has about two days before she'll die of thirst. And then Death himself shows up...
- Happened in Anne Rice's book Lasher. Since that was a woman, it was, yes, deadly serious.
- In Peter Robinson's Friend with the devil, one of the investigating detectives finds a suspect tied to the bed in a hotel room. She proceeds to interrogate both him and his lover, before letting the lover untie him. It's just as awkward and absurd as it sounds.
- In Janet Evanovich's first Stephanie Plum book, Stephanie is handcuffed to the shower—an example of this trope being played to comedic effect with a woman. The book gets away with it because the guy who does it is just trying to keep her out of the way so he can search her apartment for something he believes she has. He ogles her a bit, but it's presented as being mostly playfulness (they have "history" together), as well as causing her to get embarrassed and cover up rather than make trouble.
- In Courtney Milan's Proof By Seduction, Gareth insists that Jenny wear a much fancier dress than the plain fare she prefers, and won't let her voice any objections. She lifts her skirts to above her knees, slooowly peels down one of her stockings, and then climbs on his lap for makeouts. While he's distracted, she uses the stocking to tie one of his hands to the chair behind his back. Then she climbs off his lap and archly tells him to free himself. When he furiously declares that he can't reach the knots with his free hand, she tells him she can't reach the laces on the back of that fancy dress either. She's too poor to hire a lady's maid, and the plain dresses are the only ones she can put on and off by herself.
- In the short story "Bed of Roses" by Elisabeth Waters, the protagonist's suitor/stalker insists on "a night in her bed" in exchange for helping her to rescue her little brother. He should probably have asked for something else, considering that she's a member of a celibate order of Religious Bruisers, and as such lives in a barracks...
- Vampire Kisses: Played with in the first book when Raven distracts Trevor by making out with him and then stealing his clothes that he had taken off, thinking that he was gonna score with her. The next day at school, she plays a prank on him by supergluing his underwear to her locker.
- A very dark example of this is in Less Than Zero where a twelve year old girl is tied to a bed, and given drugs as she gets used as a sex slave.
- Happens more than once to Lisbeth Salander in The Millennium Trilogy. The first time, she's being strapped down by a sadistic psychiatrist and the second time she's being raped by her court-appointed guardian. She gets vengeance on them.
- In The Sibyl In Her Grave by Sarah Caudwell, bank director Edmund Albany gets found almost-naked and tied to a bed by one of the protagonists. It turns out that he referred to a French dominatrix as tu when she preferred vous.
- Alluded to in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The Lady Bertilak threatens to have Gawain bound to his bed if he does not 'strike a bargain with her'. In some translations and adaptations, the Lady is teasing, and Gawain responds in kind. In others, Gawain is rather nervous or legitimately concerned about the threat.
- Happens literally a few times in A Brother's Price, after Jerin is kidnapped. Played for Drama. The first time, he's assured that he won't be touched, and the second time, he's been delivered to the women who arranged for his kidnapping, one of whom "rapes his mouth". Cira, who was Bound and Gagged and chained to the foot of the bed to watch, is furious.
Live Action TV
Music Videos
Newspaper Comics
- Happens to a gay couple in the comic strip Chelsea Boys, both tied up in chairs by a kinky guy they met on the internet who then proceeds to rob them.
- Inverted and parodied in an Anton Dingeman comic: a guy who is wanted by the police for being fatally boring seduces a girl and ties her to a bed. While she is excited over the prospect of kinky sex, he proceeds to bore her to death with his stamp collection and vacation photos.
Real Life
- Two possible real-life examples are retold on this node
at Everything Two.
- This is why all toy handcuffs have levers on them that allow the wearer to free themselves without a key.
- A poster in a bondage forum kicked off a minor Flame War when he admitted to invoking this on a few of his sessions. Some of his "victims" were freaked out (which he found funny), others were too Genre Savvy to fall for it. He justified that the people he pulled this on had been people he already knew, but some posters felt it violated the Safe, Sane and Consensual principles of BDSM.
Video Games
- Happens in the first Leisure Suit Larry game. If the player has failed to acquire the knife necessary for Larry to cut himself free before this happens, its game over.
- A variation occurs at the beginning of the sixth game, wherein Shamara (after indeed spending the night with Larry), leaves him handcuffed to a bed and steals Larry's wallet... Then he accidentally sets the hotel on fire.
- Also two different types of death scenes in the second game - one with "Mama Bimbo", another with any of Dr. Nonookie's "helicopter girls".
- One of Aurica's cosmosphere levels in Ar tonelico has her tie Lyner up in this fashion in attempt to rape him.
- World of Warcraft has a female comedic example. Some of the goblin joke lines reveal that female goblins like being tied up, and male goblins will steal their stuff while they're helpless.
Webcomics
- Happened to Danny in the webcomic Sorcery 101. Possibly unique in that girl (er, demoness) does not escape scot free. Very much not.
- Tip in Skin Horse lets Julie chain him to a bed with her police handcuffs for some kinky sex. Afterward, she leaves him chained up "for his own protection." However, the handcuffs don't present Tip with much difficulty in the end.
- Happened to the titular character of Dominic Deegan. Played completely for comedy, because it's Rachel and Dominic. Comic here
.
- What's interesting is the massive amounts of Dude, Not Funny! reaction from the fan forum
- Well, it was very much implied to be non-consensual (as Dominic claims to have had "no choice in the matter"), so treating it as comedy (compared to the male-on-female rape that is treated as drama) has some Unfortunate Implications.
- Inverted in this
Loserz strip where Jodie is the one chained to the bed, but it's after a Wild Teen Party and played for laughs.
- Last Res0rt uses a downplayed version of this routinely as a preventative measure / enforced "curfew" on criminal players staying in the Executioner's Quarters. Unlike most of the examples here, though, the chains still give them some freedom of movement as opposed to being left spread-eagle and completely vulnerable.
Western Animation
- And Quagmire in Family Guy. Fortunately he was able to dial the phone for help. And no, he didn't use his hands. Or his feet.
- In an episode of The Critic, a female projectionist (who happens to be a very obsessed fan of movie critic Jay Sherman) invites him to her apartment, drugs his glass of wine, and when he awakens he finds himseif tied up to her bed with rolls of movie film. By the episode's end, his best friend Jeremy rescues him.
- The Fairly Oddparents: In a (possibly) non-romantic example, Vicky does this to Timmy at least once.
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