History Main / HelpHelpTrappedInTitleFactory

[[folder:Film -- Animation]]

[[folder:Film -- Live-Action]]

* ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'': The WesternAnimation/DaffyDuck short "China Jones" parodies the "being held in a Chinese bakery" one. [[spoiler:Daffy himself ends up being held in a Chinese ''[[ChineseLaunderer laundry]]'']].

-->''And bye the border of Afhter, fromme the east side even untoe the west side, a portion for Naphtali.''\\

* Some versions of [[UsefulNotes/MacOS System 7]] (starting with 7.0.1) have messages hidden in the System file's data fork along the lines of "Help! Help! We're being held prisoner in a system software factory!", most likely a reference to that release of the software's TroubledProduction, as well as to the [[DevelopmentHell protracted and ultimately fruitless development]] of Taligent, [=MacOS's=] anointed successor at the time.

* ''Literature/MySisterMyWriter'', an anime which was infamous for its [[OffModel hideous animation]] and ClicheStorm story, has one of the staff credited as 正直困太 ("Shoujiki Komatta"). That's not a real person's name - it instead translates to "We're in serious trouble", as in the anime's own TroubledProduction.

* ''TabletopGame/TwilightSparklesSecretShipficFolder'': The card [[https://cdn-img.fimfiction.net/story/uv7l-1432572324-198584-full One card]] is titled "Help! I'm trapped in a shipping card game!", and shows Cheerilee frantically beating at the card's "screen".

* Creator/WarrenEllis in DC's house ads for the 2017 Creator/{{WildStorm}} relaunch:

[[folder:Film]]
* Whenever French is spoken in ''Film/DudeBroPartyMassacre3'', the subtitles are pleadings of help by the subtitler, who is being held against his will. This extends to the [[CreditsGag end credits]], where Subtitles are credited to "HELP THIS IS NOT A JOKE".
* ''Film/WithoutAClue'': The man forced to counterfeit pound notes for Professor Moriarty prints a clue on them about his location. Ironically, Holmes and Watson completely misunderstand the clue, yet stumble on his location anyway.

** A message in ''Literature/{{Hogfather}}'' is in a [[YouMeanXmas Hogswatch]] cracker and says "Help help help Ive fallen in the crakker machine I cant keep runin on this roller please get me ou-". Someone says it's the same old mottos as when they were kids.
** In ''Literature/InterestingTimes'', the Silver Horde interrupt a tax collector in the Forbidden City, just as he's writing (in the traditional poetic form) that Seven Lucky Logs owes one pig and three measurements of rice. Before they take him along as a guide, Cohen dictates a replacement for that text, and so the collector leaves a note reading "Roses are red, violets are blue. Seven Lucky Logs to be given one pig and all the rice he can carry because he is One Lucky Peasant. By order of Six Beneficient Winds, Collector of Revenues. Help. Help. If anyone reads this I am being held prisoner by an evil eunuch. Help."
* In ''Literature/{{Goldfinger}}'' (the original novel) Literature/JamesBond leaves a note on the underside of the toilet on a plane, telling of Goldfinger's plot and saying that delivery of the note to Felix Leiter of the CIA will result in a reward, hoping that the cleaning crew will find it; but doesn't know whether or not it got found & delivered, or thrown out, or found by the bad guys.
* In ''The Tightrope Walker'' by Creator/DorothyGilman, the plot starts when the owner of a second-hand store finds a "Please help" message hidden in one of the objects in her store.
* The rare "Buggre all this" edition of the Bible that Aziraphale had in ''Literature/GoodOmens''.

* In ''{{Literature/Canned}}'', by Alex Shearer, Fergal and Charlotte find a can containing the message "HELP", along with several cans containing some more gruesome clues.
* In ''Literature/HelpIAmBeingHeldPrisoner'', by Donald E. Westlake, the message "HELP I AM BEING HELD PRISONER" begins to appear in various kinds of goods produced in a prison soon after compulsive practical joker Harry arrives there. With every message that appears, Harry finds himself more trapped between the rock of the warden and the hard place of his fellow convicts. [[spoiler:Subverted: Harry wasn't sending the messages, it was the gardener who was about to be released and didn't want to leave.]]
* According to Creator/DaveBarry, when the dome of the United States Capitol was being built nobody realized the writing on the ceiling was Italian for "Help I'm trapped up here and am starving to death".
* ''Help! I'm a Prisoner in the Library'' by Eth Clifford, although it's not exactly the main focus.
* In ''Literature/DoubleOrDie'', Fairburn plants cryptic clues (literally: he is a cryptic crossword compiler) in the letter he is allowed to send his students. If correctly interpreted, these clues reveal that is a prisoner and where he is being held.
* In ''Help! I am a Prisoner in a Toothpaste Factory'' by John Antrobus, the message comes out of a tube of toothpaste.
* "Ms. Found in a Chinese Fortune Cookie" by C. M. Kornbluth is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin.

* Creator/StephenColbert used [[http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/82145/february-13-2007/the-word---apocalypse-mao--murdered-by-the-orient-s-success---frenemy this trope]] in a ''[[Series/TheColbertReport Colbert Report]]'' -- [[ChinaTakesOverTheWorld Apocalypse Mao: Murdered by the Orient's Success]].

* The "...Chinese Fortune Cookie Factory" version was used on ''Series/GetSmart''.
* One ''Series/MockTheWeek'' ''Scenes We'd Like to See'' round gave us ''Weird Things to See on a Road Sign'' to which Frankie Boyle provided us with...
-->'''Frankie:''' Help me, I'm trapped in a sign-making factory.
* ''Series/NewsRadio'', Dave is reading cards from a complaint box.
-->'''Dave:''' "Help, I'm being held prisoner in a complaint box", which is actually kinda funny.
* Invoked on ''Series/WhoseLineIsItAnyway'' at the end of one game of "Hats":
--> '''Colin:''' Help me they're making me do "Hats" I wanna go home...

* Comes up in ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'' during a StoryArc where Linus's mom leaves him inspirational notes in his lunch bag: [[http://www.gocomics.com/peanuts/1961/02/22 one reads]] "Help! I'm being held prisoner in a School Lunch factory!"

* The flavor text on the humorous ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=73947 "Gleemax"]] card.
* [[https://cdn-img.fimfiction.net/story/uv7l-1432572324-198584-full This card]] from TabletopGame/TwilightSparklesSecretShipficFolder.
* ''Box One'', a tabletop game by Creator/NeilPatrickHarris, begins as a sequential trivia game until one card reveals that [[spoiler: the rest of the card deck is fake, and contains clues to the whereabouts of the game's true designer, who was kidnapped by NPH.]]

* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' has a fortune card that reads: "Help! I'm being held prisoner in a fortune cookie bakery!"

* Done in ''VideoGame/SpaceQuestIIIThePiratesOfPestulon'' once Roger gets a high score in "Astro Chicken". He'll find a secret message pleading for help by the Two Guys from Andromeda, the programmers of the game.
* One of the pillars in ''{{VideoGame/Fez}}'' reads, when translated, "Please send help. Trapped in a fez factory." Though downplayed given it's written on a stone pillar and not a fez.
* If playing as an Apex in ''VideoGame/{{Starbound}}'' and inspect a standard issue chair, the player character will note that they are mass produced in factories... and add that they once found the words "Help us" engraved in a chair frame like this. Given that the Apex are suffering under an oppressive, totalitarian regime, it's not at all played for laughs.
* ''[[WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}} Animaniacs Game Pack]]'': One of the [[CouchGag closing animations]] you get after quitting the game is Wakko yelling "Help! We're trapped in a software company!"
* On AprilFoolsDay 2022, ''VideoGame/{{Arcaea}}'' added a menu that would appear after each song to give a list of silly reasons for any changes to the player's Potential score, one of which read "Help I'm stuck in a Potential factory".

* The eye chart in the first panel of [[http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID=301 this]] ''Webcomic/GunnerkriggCourt'' guest comic.
* Has been parodied twice in ''Webcomic/{{XKCD}}''. First there was the [[http://xkcd.com/10/ Pi Equals]] comic, and the second was in the AltText of [[http://xkcd.com/327/ Exploits of a Mom]].
** xkcd fans like [[http://www.xkcdb.com/?7164 variations of this]] too.
* ''Webcomic/TheNoob'' has [[http://www.thenoobcomic.com/index.php?pos=431 A guy with PHD in Egyptology held in the Clichequest offices basement.]]
* The [[DiscussedTrope trope is discussed]] in ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'', and then used as context for [[spoiler:Bristlecone discovering that the very unfriendly and homicidal AI Tagii has a fragment of herself holed up inside Ennesby [[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2013-07-20 thanks to Tagii filling tac-info shared between Bristlecone and Ennesby with messages about it]].]]

* The third panel of [[http://www.housepetscomic.com/comic/2010/01/18/pool-of-tantalus/ this]] ''Webcomic/{{Housepets}}'' comic has a news crawl reading "trapped in editing room send help;&"

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/FostersHomeForImaginaryFriends'', Bloo becomes a celebrity, but his agent won't let him go. So on his variety show, Bloo tap dances a Morse code message saying "Help me, Mac!" so Mac and the rest of the friends who are watching can go to the studio and save him.

* The episode titles of the first part of ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken'''s fourth season form the message "Help me. I'm trapped in a DVD factory. They took my thumbs. Two weeks without food. Tell my mom I love her, but not in that way. Love, Maurice PS: Yes, in [[ParentalIncest that way]]." In a twist to this trope, the second half's episodes titles make up the factory's response: "Dear Consumer, we are a humble factory. Maurice was caught unionizing our labor. [[RedChina President Hu]] forbids it! Due to constraints of time and budget, the ramblings of Maurice cannot be erased, so sorry. Please do not notify our contractors. Especially [[BitingTheHandHumor the animal]] [[Creator/AdultSwim Keith Crofford]]!"
* In the direct-to-video movie ''WesternAnimation/{{Madeline}}: Lost in Paris'', Madeline ended up in a sweatshop making lace, and she and the other girls attempted to knot lace patterns that spelled out a message for help.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' episode "[[Recap/RickAndMortyS6E5FinalDesmithation Final DeSmithation]]", the writer of the fortune cookies started creating absurd fortunes to get people to investigate the factory. He ends up getting Rick's attention when Jerry gets a fortune saying he will have sex with his mother and Rick notices that the probability of that happening has suddenly increased dramatically.

Someone is trapped, or forced to work against their will, in some kind of facility that produces publicly available goods (such as fortune cookie fortunes, or candybar wrappings). They proceeds to use them as a means of communicating with the outside world and asking for help.

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/FostersHomeForImaginaryFriends'', Bloo becomes a celebrity, but his agent won't let him go. So on his variety show, Bloo tap dances a Morse code message saying "Help me, Mac!" so Mac and the rest of the friends who are watching can go to the studio and save him.
-->'''Mac:''' Oh my gosh! He needs help! But why?
-->'''Wilt:''' Who knows? First I've heard of it. Before this, he did funny sketches and songs like "My Evil Producer Has Kidnapped Me and Won't Let Me Go", the "Somebody Save Me" magic show, and "A Little Help from My Imaginary Fr--" ''[[ExplainExplainOhCrap (realization)]]'' I am so ''stupid!''

* ''Website/{{Neopets}}'': In accordance with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (a.k.a. COPPA), which forbids collecting personal data from people under 13 without parental consent, users under 13 years old are locked out of most things that involve entering text (besides things like their usernames and pet names[[note]]While this is much stricter than COPPA actually requires, there had been problems with kids entering personal info on their user lookups and shops of their own volition, so those had to go[[/note]]. Areas of the site that would allow custom text and HTML to most users only gives a selection of canned plaintext responses if your account is in this protected state. One of the 31 available options for a shop description is: "Help! I'm stuck in the shop and all I have to communicate with is this drop down list!"

* ''Website/{{Neopets}}'': In accordance with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (a.k.a. COPPA), which forbids any form of data collection from minors without parental consent, users under 13 years old are not allowed to enter text besides their usernames and pets' names; any other area of the site that would allow customization to others only gives a selection of canned responses. One of the 31 available options for a shop description is: "Help! I'm stuck in the shop and all I have to communicate with is this drop down list!"

* The page image is from ''Webcomic/{{Oglaf}}'', where a poet has been violently enslaved in his own home by a muse that's a BrawnHilda, emphasis on "Brawn". [[spoiler:He's later rescued by the personification of his own crippling self-doubt]].

* The Wiki/SCPFoundation's [[http://www.scpwiki.com/log-of-anomalous-items Log of Anomalous Items]] includes a piece of charcoal that causes anyone using it to write "Somebody help me! I'm trapped in the charcoal!" every several seconds.

* ''LightNovel/MySisterMyWriter'', an anime which was infamous for its [[OffModel hideous animation]] and ClicheStorm story, has one of the staff credited as 正直困太 ("Shoujiki Komatta"). That's not a real person's name - it instead translates to "We're in serious trouble", as in the anime's own TroubledProduction.