History Main / OutOfTheFryingPan

-->'''Alcatraz:''' It seems that no matter what I did, I ended up in even more danger than I was before. One might even say I was "out of the frying pan and into the fire"... Personally I say "Out of the frying pan and into the the [[PitTrap deadly pit]] filled with [[EverythingsEvenWorseWithSharks sharks]] who are wielding [[ChainsawGood chainsaws]] with [[CatsAreMean killer kittens]] stapled to them." However that one's having a rough time catching on.

* God invokes it in ''Literature/TheBible'' (so this is OlderThanFeudalism): "It will be as though a man fled from a lion [[BearsAreBadNews only to meet a bear]]." (Amos 5:19)

Bob escapes from a sword-wielding maniac by hiding in a river--only to find out the river is full of hungry piranhas. Alice defeats a monster [[KillItWithFire with fire]]--and now she has to escape from a burning building. [[TheTeam The band of heroes]] scares away the opposing army by [[SummonBiggerFish summoning a dragon]]--which turns around and begins attacking ''them''. The permutations are endless.

* In the first episode of ''Anime/{{K}}'', Shiro is being chased by the Red Clan, and he's saved by Kuroh, who [[InASingleBound carries him up]] to a nearby rooftop - only to have Kuroh draw his sword and declare that he will now slay Shiro himself.

* In ''Manga/Zom100BucketListOfTheDead'' chapter "Hero of the Dead", Akira and Kencho escort a group of survivors attempting to flee the zombies on the bus into the safety of an aquarium. Unfortunately that's when [[spoiler:the zombie shark in the tank sprouts the legs of the divers it ate and starts running at them.]]

** In ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'', Han Solo is pursued by the Imperial fleet, and flies into an AsteroidThicket to lose them. He then realizes that the odds in the asteroid field aren't much better than his odds against the Imperials, so he hides in a cave on a larger asteroid--and ends up flying down the mouth of a giant space slug.

*** The crew of the ''Millennium Falcon'' successfully escapes a squadron of Imperial TIE fighters in the Akkadese Maelstrom after pulling off a heist on Kessel... and bump into the Summa-verminoth, a gigantic space cephalopod that tries to eat them. ''Then'' they end up in the Maw, a cluster of black holes.
*** Qi'ra eventually [[spoiler:betrays Dryden Vos to take over Crimson Dawn and become the representative of the true leader ''[[TheSociopath Darth]] [[KungFuWizard Maul]]''. It's strongly implied he has eventually killed her]].

** Season Five: Another plan actually works! [[spoiler:Lucifer is locked back in the Cage, and bonus, Michael's trapped in there with him.]] This prompts Raphael to declare himself the new boss of Heaven, and now [[spoiler: Castiel's stuck fighting a civil war against him to prevent he Apocalypse that they ''just averted'' happening ''again'']].
** Season Six: Castiel conceives an incredibly desperate plan to stop Raphael, but it looks like it might actually work. [[spoiler: It does, but now Castiel's gone mad with SoulPower and is rampaging around the planet. Oh, and there's a bunch of [[HungryMenace Leviathan]].]]

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1985'' episode "Crazy as a Soup Sandwich". A loser sells his soul to a demon in exchange for winning at the horse races, only to get cheated, of course. He goes to the mobster he borrowed his betting money from, begging for protection [[spoiler:and the mobster does--because he's an arch-demon in human form, and now the loser owes his soul to a ''worse'' demon.]]
* Inverted (sort of) in ''Series/TheYoungOnes'' where, as they are being chased by an axe-wielding homicidal maniac ([[ItMakesAsMuchSenseInContext who is also their landlord]]) Neil exclaims:

* ''Series/{{Dinosaurs}}'' has this in the finale, "Changing Nature". B.P. Richfield has the earth sprayed with poison to remove cider poppies, but this works too well -- all plant life is killed as well, resulting in the global food chain being destroyed. So, he then has bombs thrown into volcanos to try and get it to rain- but that just causes the sun to be blotted out and the Earth to enter an Ice Age.

'''Legs:''' We're chasing an indoor [[{{BFG}} plasma rocket]], sir. [[DeadpanSnarker We're probably only saving those two from the frying pan]].

* ''Manga/OnePiece'': When Luffy's SuperMode runs out while fighting [[TheDragon Katakuri]], he is forced to retreat while it recharges. He manages to escape the Mirror World they were fighting in (Leaving Katakuri trapped inside), he ends up on the same island Big Mom is currently rampaging on!

* A common Vietnamese proverb: "Tránh vỏ dưa, gặp vỏ dừa" (Avoiding the melon skin, running into the coconut skin).

* ''WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation'' explored a CaffeineBulletTime mechanic used for the stealth sections of ''VideoGame/VelvetAssassin'', pointing out that the mechanic would backfire on Violet if there was more than ''one'' conveniently-alerted Nazi around, or if more were alerted.

* ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate'' has the reveal trailer for the third character of the second Fighter Pass. It opens with the various heroes of the roster getting [[CurbStompBattle curb-stomped]] by [[AngelicAbomination Galeem]], the BigBad of the story mode "World of Light". But just as he prepares to unleash his ultimate KillEmAll attack, just as he did in the story's opening, he suddenly gets ''[[DiagonalCut sliced in half!]]'' As the other fighters gaze in awe of their enemy defeated, it's eventually revealed that they just exchanged one angel of death for another, more dangerous one; [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII Sephiroth]] has arrived, ready to bring despair to Super Smash Bros.

* Taken literally in ''VideoGame/{{Afterlife|1996}}'', where one of Hell's punishments places the damned on a giant frying pan over a fire. They occasionally jump, in the desperate and vain hope that the fire will be less hot this time. The more metaphorical elements of the trope are seen in many Envy punishments, in that many of the Envious are given just enough leeway to screw themselves over thinking they're getting out of their current predicament only to land into a worse one. The Escher Pits are the epitome: The tortures are all normal-looking, but the damned are tormented right next to each other, the neighbor always ''seems'' to be better off, but when the demons allow you to swap tortures it's somehow ''always worse''.

* During the [[{{WorldWarII/WarInAsiaAndThePacific}} Pacific War]], the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_cruiser_Chōkai Japanese Cruiser Chōkai]] was sunk after engaging the US Fleet during [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Leyte_Gulf the Battle of Leyte Gulf.]] Her surviving crew were then rescued by the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_destroyer_Fujinami destroyer Fujinami]]. But just two days later, the Fujinami herself was attacked by American Carrier Aircraft and sank with all hands, ''including the surviving men of the Chōkai.''

* In ''[[WesternAnimation/AnAmericanTail An American Tail: Fievel Goes West]]'', Fievel's best friend Tiger (a cat) is chased by a street dog and escapes it by jumping into a tunnel down a building. Then he finds out ''dozens'' of similar street dogs are sleeping inside. After outrunning them, he briefly hangs on an antenna before a big dog causes it to collapse. Tiger then falls into a dog pound full of dobermann-like dogs, and all cages open at the same time after he bounced on them like a pinball.

* ''Machinima/FreemansMind'' did it once, with Gordon saying "Out of the frying pan, into ''another'' frying pan" while advancing under machine gun fire. Amusing because, indeed, the 'new' situation was exactly the same as the old one.

* During the [[{{WorldWarII/WarInAsiaAndThePacific}} Pacific War]], the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_cruiser_Chōkai Japanese Cruiser Chōkai]] was sunk after engaging the US Fleet during [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Leyte_Gulf the Battle of Leyte Gulf.]] Her surviving men were then rescued by the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_destroyer_Fujinami destroyer Fujinami]]. But just two days later, the Fujinami herself was attacked by American Carrier Aircraft and sank with all hands, ''including the surviving crew of the Chōkai.''

* During the [[{{WorldWarII/WarInAsiaAndThePacific}} Pacific War]], the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_cruiser_Chōkai Japanese Cruiser Chōkai]] was sunk after engaging the US Fleet during [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Leyte_Gulf the Battle of Leyte Gulf.]] Her surviving men were then rescued by the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_destroyer_Fujinami destroyer Fujinami]]. But just two days later, the Fujinami herself was attacked by American Carrier Aircraft and sank with all hands on deck, ''including the surviving crew of the Chōkai.''

* During the [[{{WorldWarII/WarInAsiaAndThePacific}} Pacific War]], the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_cruiser_Chōkai Japanese Cruiser Chōkai]] was sunk after engaging the US Fleet during [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Leyte_Gulf the Battle of Leyte Gulf.]] Her surviving men were then rescued by the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_destroyer_Fujinami destroyer Fujinami]]. But just two days later, the Fujinami herself was attacked by American Carrier Aircraft and sunk with all hands on deck, ''including the surviving crew of the Chōkai.''

* During the [[{{WorldWarII/WarInAsiaAndThePacific}} Pacific War]], the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_cruiser_Ch%C5%8Dkai Japanese Cruiser Chōkai]] was sunk after engaging the US Fleet during [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Leyte_Gulf the Battle of Leyte Gulf.]] Her surviving men were then rescued by the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_destroyer_Fujinami destroyer Fujinami]]. But just two days later, the Fujinami herself was attacked by American Carrier Aircraft and sunk with all hands on deck, ''including the surviving crew of the Chōkai.''

* During the [[{{WorldWarII/WarInAsiaAndThePacific}} Pacific War]], the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_cruiser_Ch%C5%8Dkai Japanese Cruiser Chōkai]] was sunk after engaging the US Fleet during [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Leyte_Gulf the Battle of Leyte Gulf.]] Her surviving men were then rescued by the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_destroyer_Fujinami destroyer Fujinami]]. But just two days later, the Fujinami herself was attacked by American Carrier Aircraft and sunk with all hands on deck, ''including'' the surviving crew of the Chōkai.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

[[folder:Film - Animated]]

[[folder:Film - Live Action]]

* Zara in ''Film/JurassicWorld'' manages to get free of the pteranodon carrying her...only to fall into [[spoiler: the mosasaurus's pool]].

* ''Film/ThorRagnarok'' ends with [[spoiler: the destruction of Asgard by a flaming monster while Thor, Loki, Hulk and the rest of the Asgardians escape on a spaceship.]] However, the mid-credits scene shows [[spoiler: the ship being intercepted by '''''[[GreaterScopeVillain Thanos.]]''''']] Cut to ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'' - [[spoiler: half the surviving Asgardians are massacred, and Thanos personally kills both Heimdall and Loki before leaving Thor floating n space, where he gets rescued by [[Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy the Guardians of the Galaxy]].]]

* A programmer parody of ''99 Bottles of Beer On The Wall'' runs thus:
--> 99 little bugs in the code
--> 99 bugs in the code
--> Fix one bug, compile it again
--> 101 little bugs in the code

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* ''Series/{{Dinosaurs}}'' has this in the finale, "Changing Nature". B.P. Richfield has the earth sprayed with poison to remove cider poppies, but this works too well- all plant life is killed as well, resulting in the global food chain being destroyed. So, he then has bombs thrown into volcanos to try and get it to rain- but that just causes the sun to be blotted out and the earth to enter an Ice Age.

[[folder:VideoGames]]
* Taken literally in ''VideoGame/Afterlife1996'', where one of Hell's punishments places the damned on a giant frying pan over a fire. They occasionally jump, in the desperate and vain hope that the fire will be less hot this time. The more metaphorical elements of the trope are seen in many Envy punishments, in that many of the Envious are given just enough leeway to screw themselves over thinking they're getting out of their current predicament only to land into a worse one. The Escher Pits are the epitome: The tortures are all normal-looking, but the damned are tormented right next to each other, the neighbor always ''seems'' to be better off, but when the demons allow you to swap tortures it's somehow ''always worse''.

-->'''Tidus''': ''[narrating]'' I had gone out of the frying pan... [[PopularSayingBut and into the freezer]].

[[folder:Web Comics]]

--> '''Bunnigus''': What? '''No.''' We're saving them from the fire.\\

[[folder:Web Video]]
* ''Machinima/FreemansMind'' did it once, with Gordon saying "Out of the frying pan, into ''another'' frying pan" while advancing under machine gun fire. Amusing because, indeed, the 'new' situation was exactly the same as the old one.
* ''WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation'' explored a CaffeineBulletTime mechanic used for the stealth sections of ''VideoGame/VelvetAssassin'', pointing out that the mechanic would backfire on Violet if there was more than ''one'' conveniently-alerted Nazi around, or if more were alerted.
--> '''Yahtzee:''' ...then the "f**kup remedy" has instead resulted in what we experts call "[[BoomerangComeback boomerang f**kup]]".
[[/folder]]

* Taken literally in ''VideoGame/Afterlife1996'', where one of Hell's punishments places the damned on a giant frying pan over a fire. They occasionally jump, in the desperate and vain hope that the fire will be less hot this time.

* In the first episode of ''Anime/{{K}}'', Shiro is being chased by the Red Clan, and he's saved by Kuroh, who [[InASingleBound carries him up]] to a nearby rooftop - only to have Kuroh draw his sword and declare that he will now slay Shiro himself.

* In ''Manga/Zom100BucketListOfTheDead'' chapter "Hero of the Dead", Akira and Kencho escort a group of survivors attempting to flee the zombies on the bus into the safety of an aquarium. Unfortunately that's when [[spoiler:the zombie shark in the tank sprouts the legs of the divers it ate and starts running at them.]]

* ''ComicBook/AllNewUltimates'': Many Skull serpents escaped from the Ultimates in the church, only to be found by Scourge. And, unlike the Ultimates, Scourge ''kills'' criminals.

* Near the end in ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory3'', the toys wind up in a landfill and onto a conveyor leading towards a shredder. They escape by grabbing onto metal objects as an overhead magnetic strip separates them, only to discover that this conveyor leads to an ''incinerator''.

* In ''{{Film/Hellboy|2004}}'', after Hellboy resists temptation and avoids triggering the apocalypse, he kills his tempter, Rasputin. A tentacle-y monster slithers out of Rasputin's body and rapidly grows to a massive size...
* ''Film/TheHobbitAnUnexpectedJourney'' has a similar scene to the original novel: the party escapes from the caverns of the Misty Mountains, only to be cornered by a worse band of warg-riding orcs. Thorin even says "Out of the frying pan", while Gandalf finishes with "and into the fire."
* Zara in ''Film/JurassicWorld'' manages to get free of the pteranodon carrying her...only to fall into [[spoiler: the mosasaurus's pool]].
* In Chaplin's ''Film/TheCircus'', the Tramp tries to escape a lion cage only to find himself faced by a tiger in the next cage.

* In ''Literature/TheHobbit'', the adventure party escapes from the goblins of the Misty Mountains, only to find themselves surrounded by wolves as night falls: "'Escaping goblins to be caught by wolves!' [Bilbo] said, and it became a proverb, though we now say ‘out of the frying-pan into the fire' in the same sort of uncomfortable situations.”
* It is {{lampshaded}} in the ''Literature/AlcatrazSeries''

* In ''The Legacy of Heorot'', colonists attempt to exterminate a local monster that usually eats [[CallARabbitASmeerp fishlike things and lemurlike things]] but prefers people in its diet. It hits the fan when they find that: [[spoiler:the fishlike things are baby monsters; their only predators -- the adults -- are gone; and they're all about to grow up at once]].
* God invokes it in Literature/TheBible (so this is OlderThanFeudalism): "It will be as though a man fled from a lion [[BearsAreBadNews only to meet a bear]]." (Amos 5:19)
* ''Literature/{{City of Bones|1995}}'' by Creator/MarthaWells: {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d when Khat and Sagai escape Lushan's thugs, only to be arrested by Warders:
-->'''Sagai:''' Out of the pot and into the coals!

* As their producers were all too happy to point out, during ''Series/TopGear'''s Middle East Special, the hosts escaped from a country where there is no war (Iraq) to a country where there is one (Turkey).
* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1985'' episode "Crazy as a Soup Sandwich". A loser sells his soul to a demon in exchange for winning at the horse races, only to get cheated, of course. He goes to the mobster he borrowed his betting money from, begging for protection [[spoiler:and the mobster does--because he's an arch-demon in human form, and now the loser owes his soul to a ''worse'' demon.]]

* Inverted (sort of) in ''Series/TheYoungOnes'' where, as they are being chased by an axe-wielding homicidal maniac ([[ItMakesAsMuchSenseInContext who is also their landlord]]) Neil exclaims:
--> '''Neil''': Oh well, out of the frying pan and into another frying pan...
* In the ''Series/StargateSG1'' episode "[[Recap/StargateSG1S5E15Summit Summit]]", Jacob Carter complains to Jack O'Neill that Stargate Command's series of killings of major Goa'uld (at this time, Ra, Sokar, Heru'ur, Cronus, and finally Apophis) keeps creating power vacuums that even worse Goa'uld invariably step in to fill. [[spoiler:This culminates in the rise of Anubis, a partially {{ascend|ToAHigherPlaneOfExistence}}ed Goa'uld who was banished by the others millennia before.]] Jack retorts that "at least we're doing something", pointing to the fact that Earth has made more progress in actually taking down the System Lords than the Tok'ra had in two thousand years.

* In ''Series/TheATeam'' episode "[[Recap/TheATeamS2E7TheTaxicabWars The Taxicab Wars]]", this happens from the perspective of the British passengers in B.A.'s cab. Terrified of the ScaryBlackMan, they change to a different cab, saying "that man is quite mad!" The cab they get into happens to belong to Murdock, who immediately starts talking to his HandPuppet Socky. They immediately get out of that cab too, and remark that next time they're just going to stay in London.

* At the end of ''VideoGame/HalfLife'', Gordon finally defeats the Nihilanth, thus closing the portal and stopping the alien invasion; and in ''Opposing Force'' Adrian witnesses the whole facility get nuked, putting an end to the horrific Black Mesa Incident once and for all. One can imagine the survivors' collective sigh of relief that it was ''finally over''. Then in ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'', you find out that it was for naught — all the activity of the incident attracted the attention of the Combine Empire, who invaded, took over the world within 7 hours, and have been ruling Earth with an iron fist in the twenty years since then. [[SarcasmMode Yay.]]
* In ''VideoGame/StarFox64,'' Immediately following Katina's dangerous melee with an alien mothership, Solar has the trope name as its tagline, [[StealthPun since the planet is question is too hot for the arwing to withstand]].

* ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'' heavily employs this trope with "Beasts", manifestations of Evils of Humanity.[[spoiler: Humanity is incinerated by Goetia, Beast I, and to restore it the protagonists have to repair seven singularities. Things go well, singularities are repaired with Tiamat, Beast II, defeated along the way. Through a lot of effort and sacrifices, Goetia is defeated, everything seems well and as a bonus, the most dangerous Beast, Primate Murder, Beast IV defeats itself to resurrect one of the protagonists. What seems to be a happy ending is anything but. Several Demon Gods of Ars Goetia escape and create their own singularities. One of them ends up possessing Kiara Sessyoin, who transforms into Beast III/R. Meanwhile, as a consequence of Goetia's actions, Alien God, Beast VII starts an invasion of Earth, wiping out almost every human on the planet, bleaching its surface, and reviving 7 dead-end timelines pruned away by the Universe. As if that wasn't bad enough, the impact caused by one of those timelines allows Beast III/L to manifest after Beast III/R is defeated. Additionally, one of the Alien God's apostles attempts to intentionally transform into an entirely new Beast. And as a cherry on top, it's heavily implied that in the final timeline ORT, the Ultimate One of Mercury has been awakened.]]

* ''Machinima/FreemansMind'' did it once, with Gordon saying "Out of the frying pan, into ''another'' frying pan" while advancing under machine gun fire. Amusing because, indeed, the 'new' situation was exactly the same as the old one.

* Said word-for-word by [[WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty Rick to Morty]], when they found themselves thrust into the B-plot after finishing the A-plot early.

* WesternAnimation/SouthPark: In "Coon and Friends", after BP’s second drilling accident opens a dimensional portal unleashing a horde of monsters they get the bright idea of fixing it by drilling on the moon, which awakens Cthulhu.

[[caption-width-right:259:Perhaps that sentence was best left unfinished.]]

[[quoteright:259:[[Webcomic/ToonHole https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/frying_pan_1.png]]]]

* Early in ''[[Fanfic/TheHeartTrilogy Heart of Fire]]'', Kathryn manages to put sedatives in Smaug's food, using her chance to escape while the dragon sleeps. Unfortunately, she's soon caught by a band of mercenaries who also wish to remain hidden from Smaug who's searching for Kathryn. When she aggravates the mercenary leader too much, he [[AttemptedRape attempts to rape her]], prompting her to scream and alert Smaug to her location. After the dragon has killed the mercenaries, he threatens to kill Kathryn as well until she manages to make a truce with him as he continues keeping her imprisoned in the Lonely Mountain.