∇
troperville

Basically, the fridge is the perfect place to hide, if you don't mind the cold. It muffles any noises you make, and whoever you're waiting for is bound to show up sooner or later. And they're guaranteed not to expect you, at least not in there. Plus, hey, there's food if you get hungry!

This trope is very different from It Came from the Fridge, since that's about something that grew out of old and moldy food left in a fridge, while this is just someone hiding in the fridge. Similarly, it has nothing to do with being Stuffed into the Fridge, which is involuntary. Also unrelated to Fridge Logic or Fridge Horror.

Examples:

Comic Books

Rorschach does this in Watchmen to Moloch.

Film

Inspector Clouseau's manservant, Cato, did this in Return of the Pink Panther.
The main character of XXX: State of the Union does this as a way to hide from the thermal imaging cameras of a SWAT team he's ambushing.

Manga and Anime

Played for Laughs in Denpa Onna To Seishun Otoko: Meme does this to surprise Makoto and get a funny reaction out of him.

Real Life

In real life, this is a prank that some people play on others without any malicious intent. As can be seen in these two videos.

Video Games

In Resident Evil 0, there is a zombie hiding in a refrigerator in the dining car of the train. The zombie will pop out after you solve a few puzzles.
- Similarly, in one of the later portions of Resident Evil 4, a Ganado bursts out of an oven to try to take down Leon while on fire. If Leon examines the oven afterwards, he wonders what the guy was doing in there in the first place.
In Luigis Mansion, an ice ghost will attack Luigi if he opens the fridge in the kitchen.

Western Animation