History Main / SubwaysSuck

* ''Theatre/TheOddCouple'': In the episode, "The Subway Story", Oscar and Felix are trapped in the subway with a model, a pregnant dog, and a guy who cynically pretends to be blind to make extra money selling pencils. At the end, the not!blind guy gives Felix a puppy that he names Yawbus ('Subway' backwards.)

* ''Series/TheSingleGuy'' Jonathan eventually prys open the doors and braves the filthy underground tunnels trying to make it to freedom.

* ''WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife'', "Commuted Sentence": Rocko's car has been impounded, and he must take public transportation to get to work. Since every day is a bad day for Rocko, this does not go well, and that includes the subway. He gets trampled by a bunch of business lizards, a laid-off postal worker goes crazy in the subway car (or at least feigns insanity so he can get some "swinging room"), and the subway is stopped for police activity. (Which is [[IncrediblyLamePun "Arts and Crafts"]]!)
* A strange example is on a airplane in the episode ''Holidays of Future Passed'' in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''. In the future teleporters become the normal yet Maggie is stopped from using one at an airport as she is pregnant, so she has to use the plane. The plane is falling to pieces and piloted by an AxeCrazy man. Otherwise the plane fits negative stereotypes of subways: the interior is identical to a subway, with people cramped and standing, filthy and noisy, full of hobos, weirdos and people to poor to afford other transportation.

* Some areas of the Capitol Wasteland in ''VideoGame/Fallout3'' are more or less inaccessible from the surface, making traversing the decrepit pre-war metro system a necessity. The problem is that [OurZombiesAreDifferent hordes of Feral Ghouls] often inhabit the old tunnels, making traveling through them quite difficult. One follower in ''VideoGame/Fallout4'', who is native to the Capitol Wasteland, will tell the player that he lost his wife when the sought shelter in the old subway tunnels.

* ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'': In "Das Subway", Arnold and his friends are forced to take the subway home from the movies after they miss the last bus and are unable to afford a cab. Gerald is reluctant ("You know what they say: 'sun goes down, stay above ground!'" and naturally things go wrong, up to and including the train breaking down and leaving the passengers stuck for a while.

* Even the animated show ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'' did this.

[SmashCut to the Subway]\\

Compare PlaneAwfulFlight.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' episode [[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE25TheClockKing "The Clock King"]]: Temple Fugate has his first encounter with Mayor Hill in the Gotham subway. Seven years later, [[spoiler:he will invoke the SinisterSubway with a TrainwreckEpisode]].

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/subways_suck.png]]

RealLife subways that ''don't'' suck include (but are not limited to) UsefulNotes/TheLondonUnderground, UsefulNotes/NewYorkCitySubway,[[note]]Though it used to suck in the past, it's better nowadays.[[/note]] Le Métro de Montréal, UsefulNotes/LeMetropolitain (in Paris), UsefulNotes/MoscowMetro, UsefulNotes/WashingtonMetro[[note]]Though recent years have called this status into question[[/note]] and pretty much every subway system in Japan. See UsefulNotes/WorldSubways for details.

[[TakeThat The message]] that many {{Sitcom}}s seem to send: subways (a.k.a. the Metro, the Underground) are always more trouble than they're worth. They're always breaking down and trapping characters inside for [[HilarityEnsues wacky, wacky antics]] or [[AnAesop heart-felt learning and personal growth]] -- in other words, you're LockedInARoom that just happens to have wheels, or trapped in a huge sideways elevator full of strangers. That's public transportation for you.

''[cuts to them sitting in the back of a cab being driven by a very reckless Eastern European driver]''

->'''Betty Ross''': [Looking at a subway map] The subway is probably quickest.\\
'''Bruce Banner''': Me in a metal tube, deep underground with hundreds of people in the most aggressive city in the world?\\
'''Betty Ross''': Right. Let's get a cab.\\
''[Cuts to them sitting in the back of a cab being driven by a very reckless Eastern European driver]''

[[folder: Comics ]]

--> '''Tony:''' I gave up limos for this?

[[folder: Film ]]

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* On ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'' Barney rides the subway immediately after finishing a marathon. Because he didn't do any ''training'' for the marathon, his legs go completely limp the instant he sits down and he's physically incapable of leaving his seat on the train.
-->'''Barney:''' I've ridden the subway twice, end to end; I've seen where it turns around. Ted, you don't ever wanna see where the subway turns around.

[[folder: Music ]]

[[folder: Theme Parks ]]

[[folder: Webcomics ]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* One episode of MTV's ''WesternAnimation/{{Downtown}}'' featured a battle-of-the-sexes train race of Chaka and Mecca versus Mat and Fruity to get to Coney Island. Chaka acts impulsively and takes random trains while Mecca is too spineless to stop her. Mat looks at the maps, makes a plan and firmly sticks to it despite Fruity's complaints, but all for nothing when their train line ends abruptly due to construction. [[spoiler: Chaka and Mecca get there first, but only by cheating and taking a cab.]]

RealLife subways that ''don't'' suck include (but are not limited to) UsefulNotes/TheLondonUnderground, UsefulNotes/NewYorkCitySubway,[[note]]Though it used to suck in the past, it's better nowadays.[[/note]] Le Métro de Montréal, UsefulNotes/LeMetropolitain (in Paris), UsefulNotes/MoscowMetro UsefulNotes/WashingtonMetro[[note]]Though recent years have called this status into question[[/note]] and pretty much every subway system in Japan. See UsefulNotes/WorldSubways for details.

RealLife subways that ''don't'' suck include (but are not limited to) UsefulNotes/TheLondonUnderground, UsefulNotes/NewYorkCitySubway,[[note]]Though it used to suck in the past, it's better nowadays.[[/note]] Le Métro de Montréal, UsefulNotes/LeMetropolitain (in Paris), UsefulNotes/WashingtonMetro[[note]]Though recent years have called this status into question[[/note]] and pretty much every subway system in Japan. See UsefulNotes/WorldSubways for details.

* ''Webcomic/{{Greg}}'' runs into a bunch of foul tempered subway riders during his morning commute. They give him a widely used single fingered salute in this instance as seen [[https://web.archive.org/web/20140215071411/http://gregcomic.com/2011/11/28/a-silver-lining-part-1/ here]].

Could have something to do with where the entertainment is made --[[BigApplesauce New York's]] subway is [[NewYorkSubway one of the oldest in the world]] and at various times has been so filthy as to get the nickname [[AbsurdlySpaciousSewer "The Electric Sewer"]], while [[UsefulNotes/LosAngelesMetroRail L.A's subway]] (while the largest system [[OverlyNarrowSuperlative in Southern California]][[note]]For those who don't get the joke, the only other major metropolitan area in Southern California, San Diego, doesn't ''have'' a subway system, using trolleys and light rail instead[[/note]]) is either ignored or [[ButtMonkey abused]] by media as a setting for geological disasters (though this seems to be turning around just as the real life subway is expanding at an astonishing rate - at least for the US).

RealLife subways that ''don't'' suck include (but are not limited to) UsefulNotes/TheLondonUnderground, UsefulNotes/NewYorkSubway,[[note]]Though it used to suck in the past, it's better nowadays.[[/note]] Le Métro de Montréal, UsefulNotes/LeMetropolitain (in Paris), UsefulNotes/WashingtonMetro[[note]]Though recent years have called this status into question[[/note]] and pretty much every subway system in Japan. See UsefulNotes/WorldSubways for details.

* ''LeastICouldDo'' [[http://leasticoulddo.com/comic/20081201 devotes an arc]] to Rayne being forced to take the subway while his car is in the shop.

RealLife subways that ''don't'' suck include (but are not limited to) UsefulNotes/TheLondonUnderground, UsefulNotes/NewYorkSubway,[[note]]Though it used to suck in the past, it's better nowadays.[[/note]] Le Métro de Montréal, UsefulNotes/LeMetropolitain (in Paris), UsefulNotes/WashingtonMetro[[note]]Which is relatively new and aggressively efficient and clean[[/note]] and pretty much every subway system in Japan. See UsefulNotes/WorldSubways for details.

* On the subject of the"T", Music/TomLehrer once did a "spelling song" using the stops on the Red Line, which if you start at Harvard Station and travel toward downtown spell out HCKCPW (it doesn't work anymore, since the last station in that list is now called "Downtown Crossing"), which he pronounces like someone spitting. Though the last line of the song ("which is just about what Boston means to me") implies it's the city in general rather than the subway that he's disparaging.