History Main / LuckBasedSearchTechnique

'''Kim:''' ''[to Ron]'' Mr. Dumb Luck!

* ''Film/YoungFrankenstein'' has Frederick yanking a likely-looking book from a bookshelf, trying to trigger the secret door he knows is on the other side. Inga, seeking to help him, pulls a nearby candle from its sconce to give him some light. The result can be summed up as follows:
-->'''Frederick:''' PUT! THE CANDLE! BACK!

* ''WesternAnimation/FinalSpace'': In episode 7, Little Cato accidently discovers Avocato has stored a secret supply of weapons in his room when he strokes Avocato’s bonsai tree, which turns out to be an activation switch that reveals the weapons.

** Ben has been doing this with the omnitrix; rather than trying logical patterns or anything like that, he just randomly rotates the dial. It actually doesn't do anything for many episodes, until he gets lucky and triggers the SuperMode that removes form time limits. Other characters call him on the useless fiddling several times as well. Justified by the fact that he's a kid and no-one understands the thing anyway.

* ''ComicBook/{{Legion of Super-Heroes}}'': The Legion is hiding from the 30th-Century authorities in a sewer beneath Metropolis. One of them trips, smacks a wall with hand, a trips a hidden switch that reveals a thousand-year-old ComicBook/LexLuthor lair to hide out in.

* Played straight in [[http://www.cad-comic.com/cad/20110819 this]] ''Webcomic/CtrlAltDel'' strip.

* And in [[http://strewthcomic.com/2011/09/22/chapter-five-page-four/ this]] ''Strewth!'' strip.

* A similar event happens in ''VideoGame/BreathOfFireIII'' when the gang of {{Loveable Rogue}}s are trying to find a way into a mansion early in the game: they search the wall around it for a way in, but give up quickly. Rei then leans against it, causing a large section of it to tip over since it was broken recently and they half-assed the repair job.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' has a humorous variation. One of the houses in Kalm has a Megalixir hidden on the top shelf of a high cupboard. Cloud exclaims that its out of reach, but repeatedly examining it causes him to throw a [[TantrumThrowing temper tantrum,]] angrily kicking the cupboard, and inadvertently causing the item to fall off the shelf.

-->'''Mackenzie:''' ''(leans against a wall)'' We're never gonna figure this out!
-->'''Saison:''' ''(beat)'' Eh, Mackenzie, what are you doing?
-->'''Mackenzie:''' That's how you usually find a secret passage. You just give up and then you lean on something, and it usually opens...

* ''Webcomic/ChasingTheSunset'': Suggested as a possible method for finding a secret door in [[http://www.fantasycomic.com/index.php?p=c166 this strip]].
* Played straight in [[http://www.cad-comic.com/cad/20110819 this]] ''Webcomic/CtrlAltDel'' strip.

* On ''WesternAnimation/FilmationsGhostbusters'', Eddie Spenser Jr. had this down to an art form. Most of the time, it made things even worse for him and his fellow Ghostbusters.
* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/RockyAndBullwinkle'', Peabody and Sherman are (literally) looking for a needle in a haystack. Peabody suggests that Sherman simply ''sit down'' on the hay. As predicted, Sherman is stabbed in the behind by the needle.
* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfTheGummiBears'', after the destruction of a message machine, Zummi is looking for a message the Great Gummis across the sea sent him just before the machine was destroyed. He finds it when Tummi accidentally sits down on the pen beside it.
* [[PluckyComicRelief Beast Boy]] from ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'' does this in "Date with Destiny" when the Titans are searching [[AbhorrentAdmirer Kitten's]] house for [[MonsterOfTheWeek Killer Moth's lair]]. Robin shouts at Cyborg, Beast Boy moves backward in surprise, and when he runs into a statue, it triggers the secret door to the MadScientist's basement.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' episode "Castle Mane-ia", Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Fluttershy end up discovering a ''lot'' of secret passageways and doors in Celestia and Luna's old castle by using this method.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' Treehouse of Horror IV's ''Bart Simpson's Dracula'', Bart seemingly does this while walking down a hall with Lisa in Mr. Burn's castle and leans on a statue. A wall opens and reveals...a laundry room. Then they turn around and find Burn's vampire lair just across the hall in plain sight, advertised by a ''flashing neon sign''.
* ''WesternAnimation/ThunderbirdsAreGo'': In "Tunnels of Time", Gordon, Lady Penelope and Parker are trapped in a pyramid that is slowly filling with toxic gas. Parker sits down to be comfortable while he waits to die, and the stone he sits on opens a secret passage.
* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'', Gumball and Darwin try to find a secret room in their house by attempting to invoke this trope.
--> '''Gumball:''' He must have a secret hideout somewhere in the house. And the best way to find a secret hideout... is by accident.
* An early episode of WesternAnimation/{{Cyberchase}} featured Matt evoking this on a pyramid, claiming that in movies, you press a random brick to open a door. He's proven right when Didgit leans against the pyramid and fall backwards upon the door opening.
* ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'': Ron Stoppable has many of these moments. It's even lampshaded once:
-->''[Ron catches himself on a bit of piping; the piping shifts, and a secret door opens]''\\
'''Kim:''' ''[to Ron]'' Mr. Dumb Luck!
* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'': In "Legs From Here to Homeworld", while looking for [[spoiler:Pink Diamond]]'s Legship in the desert, Steven accidentally activates it by placing his hand on and leaning against one of the pink [[FailedASpotCheck "pyramids"]].
* ''WesternAnimation/FinalSpace'': In episode 7, Little Cato accidently discovers Avocato has stored a secret supply of weapons in his room when he strokes Avocato’s bonsai tree, which turns out to be an activation switch that reveals the weapons.

* In ''Anime/TheFumaConspiracy'' the gang (Lupin, Jigen, Fujiko, Goemon and Murasaki) explore a booby-trapped treasure cave. When they come across a dead end, Lupin casually leans back on a wall...only to fall backward into a hidden room.

* ''ComicBook/{{Superlopez}}'': Twice in Pandora's Box. Played straight the first time, then [[InvokedTrope invoked]] and [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] the second time, when Superlópez tries to play it smart and [[ExploitedTrope make it work for him.]] (Spoiler: it doesn't)

* In one ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'' fanfic, Kim and Shego were looking through Monkey Fist's manor for necessary information. Remembering Ron's first experience in the castle, Kim begins searching for a secret passage. Shego then asks why Kim doesn't have Wade scan the castle for passageways while leaning on a bookcase...which pushes aside and reveals a passage behind it, to which Kim says ''that'' was quicker.

* In ''Film/TheFifthElement'', [[spoiler:the Apocalypse clock has minutes to go, with the heroes still baffled over how to get the MacGuffin stones to open. Vito's lackey, David, resigns himself to their fate and sighs, accidentally triggering the "Wind" stone with his breath.]]
* The film ''Film/TheGhostAndMrChicken''. While spending the night in a haunted house, Luther Heggs (Don Knotts) throws an object at a bookcase and accidentally trips a switch that causes the bookcase to slide back, exposing a secret passage.
* ''Film/YoungFrankenstein'' has Frederick yanking a likely-looking book from a bookshelf, trying to trigger the secret door he knows is on the other side. Inga, seeking to help him, pulls a nearby candle from its sconce to give him some light. The result can be summed up as follows:
-->'''Frederick:''' PUT! THE CANDLE! BACK!
* ''Film/{{Clue}}'': Colonel Mustard finds the entrance to a secret passage by leaning against it. [[spoiler: Although you could call it a subversion, seeing as in two of the endings Colonel Mustard already knew it was there.]]

* In ''Film/KingOfTheZombies'', Bill and Jeff are attempting to open the door to the crypt where the voodoo ceremony is taking place. Bill reminds Jeff that he had been to the crypt while hypnotised and must know how the door opens. As Jeff tries to remember, he leans back on the door and it swings open.
* In ''Film/Frankenstein1970'', Schutter discovers the secret entrance to Victor's laboratory while dusting a plaque in the crypt.

* In the ActionPrologue of the 2019 ''Film/KimPossible'' LiveActionAdaptation, Kim calls Wade to find out how to destroy Professor Dementor's [[HollywoodAcid dissolving-slime weapon]]. Before she can finish asking the question, Ron leans on the BigRedButton to trigger the lair's SelfDestructMechanism.

* In ''Film/CurseOfTheUndead'', Preacher Dan finds the hidden compartment in Doc Carter's strong box when he knocks it off the desk and the secret drawer springs open.
* In ''Film/NineteenNinetyFourBakerStreetSherlockHolmesReturns'', Dr. Winslow opens the door to Sherlock's secret lab when she tries to fix a shelf on the wine rack in the cellar that had been broken by the earthquake.

* Happens to Hamlet in Creator/TomHolt's ''My Hero'', during a sequence that's ''supposed'' to be demonstrating that the TheoryOfNarrativeCausality no longer applies but keeps getting undermined by the fact that (this being a Tom Holt novel) the RuleOfFunny is still in full effect.
* Averted in Darren Shan's ''Literature/TheDemonata'' series in ''Lord Loss''. Grubbs seems like the kind of impulsive young kid to stop searching early and accidentally trip the switch, but he somehow has the patience to try every single wine bottle in his uncle's cellar until he finds the one that's a hidden switch. He goes through dozens of bottles.
* Exaggerated in Creator/ArthurMachen's early works, where ''every single plot development'' came about this way.

* A variation occurs in the Austrian children's book ''Katzenkönig Mauzenberger''. The bad guys want to break in the treasure chamber of the king, but only know that they have to press a certain brick to open the secret door. The boss gets angry and [[KickTheDog kicks]] the MinionWithAnFInEvil. Of course, he lands exactly on the right brick.
* ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'': The fellowship spend ages trying to work out how to enter the gates of Moria, until someone suggests taking the instructions literally!

* [[{{Lampshaded}} Lampshade lovingly hung]] in the ''[[Series/BabylonFive Babylon 5]]'' episode ''War Without End''. Ivanova and Marcus Cole are looking for an access panel. Ivanova declares that they'll need some luck finding one. Marcus replies that he doesn't believe in luck, even as he's turning - and his Minbari Fighting Pike (collapsible metal staff) knocks into the panel, causing it to fall open. Quoth Marcus, "Then again..."
* In ''Series/TheSarahJaneAdventures'' episode "The Eternity Trap", Clyde explains how he knew to search for a secret passage by looking for gaps and oddities in the walls. The one he finds opens to a brick wall, causing Rani to laugh at him: which causes her to lean on just the right book on the [[BookcasePassage bookcase]]
* ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'': George Bluth, Sr. had a tendency to hide things inside walls, and had even designed the model home with a secret room. GOB found a document signed by George, Sr. and Saddam Hussein by taking a sledge hammer to the wall of the president's office because there wasn't enough space to line up a proper cue shot, and apparently everybody in the household knew about the secret room except Michael, who needed paperwork that was stored there.
* In the first series of ''Series/{{Blackadder}}'', our heroes are being hunted by drunken knights in a convent. In their despair, they [[PrayerIsALastResort beg the blessed virgin to help them]] - and when Edmund grabs the statue of Mary, it opens a secret passage. Subverted immediately afterwards when the knights burst in, find the room empty, and immediately figure out that they must have used the statue of Mary to open a secret passage and follow them.

* In one UK series of ''Series/BigBrother'' the contestants were put in a room full of various stations that allowed them to fill different sized containers with water, rearrange coloured blocks and so on. A giant gauge on the wall would move whenever they performed whatever unspecified actions were required to advance towards their goal. In fact all of the stations were [[RedHerring red herrings]] and the gauge actually increased whenever one of them got bored and left the room. The contestants figured it out fairly quickly due to several of them taking frequent smoke breaks.
* ''Series/MidsomerMurders'': In "Faithful Unto Death", Troy is searching an attic when backs into a wall, and falls straight through the secret door he was searching for.
* ''Series/GetSmart''. Criminal mastermind Leadside is robbing an art museum when Maxwell Smart comes swaggering in to stop him. When Leadside demands to know why the IdiotHero wasn't fooled by his fake tipoff that he was attending a KAOS meeting on the other side of town, Max reels off a convoluted explanation about how he believed the tipoff was actually a code, searched several other locations until he was completely confused, then decided to go to the museum to relax.

* A similar event happens in ''VideoGame/BreathOfFire3'' when the gang of {{Loveable Rogue}}s are trying to find a way into a mansion early in the game: they search the wall around it for a way in, but give up quickly. Rei then leans against it, causing a large section of it to tip over since it was broken recently and they half-assed the repair job.

Compare EurekaMoment and YouWereTryingTooHard. %%Can also be TruthInTelevision in the case of constantly misplaced items.

* In ''Film/NineteenNinetyFourBakerStreetSherlockHolmesReturns'', Dr. Winslow opens the door to Sherlock's secret lab when tries to fix a shelf on the wine rack in the cellar that had been broken by the earthquake.

* Daphne attempts to invoke this in ''Film/{{Scoob}}'', citing it as a frequent method by which Shaggy and Scooby find escapes and secret passages. It doesn't work for her.

* Daphne attempts to invoke this in ''Film/{{Scooby}}'', citing it as a frequent method by which Shaggy and Scooby find escapes and secret passages. It doesn't work for her.

** Another variation takes place later in the novel. That same character, Anathema, has file cards with all of the prophecies from the Book printed on them and another character realizes that since the writer of the Book was such a perfectly accurate [[Seers seer]], they can just pull out a card at random and it'll end up being exactly the prophecy they need for their current situation because the writer predicted what card they will pick.

* ''ComicBook/SensationComics'': In issue 38 ComicBook/SteveTrevor and the Holliday Girls arrive as backup for Franchise/WonderWoman only to discover she seems to have disappeared after entering a room with no other apparent exits and start searching for a hidden passageway. When Etta Candy gives up and sits down on a table it flips open the hidden door to some stairs which lead underground.

* Shaggy in ''Franchise/ScoobyDoo'' found more clues and secrets through accidents and falling over than any GreatDetective ever could. However, in ''WesternAnimation/APupNamedScoobyDoo'', it's Scooby who does this half the time. Shaggy himself only ever truly finds a clue by himself in one episode, which was the gang's search for the missing Scooby.

** In ''Discworld/TheFifthElephant'', Vimes tries to blast open a secret compartment with a siege weapon. While struggling to aim it, he sets off the opening mechanism. He tries to pretend that that [[IMeantToDoThat was his plan all along]].
** [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] (with little success) in ''Discworld/TheAmazingMauriceAndHisEducatedRodents'': Malicia insists that the best way to find secret passages is to give up after searching, then lean casually against something and accidentally trip the hidden switch. They do find a secret passage, but only by noticing the cleverly hidden switch.

* Oddly, in ''WesternAnimation/APupNamedScoobyDoo'', it's Scooby who does this half the time. Shaggy himself only ever truly finds a clue by himself in one episode, which was the gang's search for the missing Scooby.

Named after Shaggy in ''Franchise/ScoobyDoo'', who found more clues and secrets through accidents and falling over than any GreatDetective ever could. Any similarities to ShaggyDogStory are coincidental.

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