History Main / TheOperatorsMustBeCrazy

* ''Series/DoctorWho''. In [[Recap/DoctorWho2019NYSResolution "Resolution"]] the Thirteenth Doctor tries to call UNIT to warn of an alien who wants to TakeOverTheWorld, only to get an operator on the UK Security Helpline who has no idea what UNIT is.

--->'''Operator:''' ''(scoffing)'' Yes, but when did ''that'' last happen?
--->'''Doctor:''' Now! Right now!

* A RunningGag on ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' for a time was phone hotlines having extremely inappropriate hold music;

* ''WebVideo/NeebsGaming'''s series on the singleplayer game ''VideoGame/{{Subnautica}}'' uses this to incorporate the rest of the group. Appsro is the one stranded on Planet 4546B, and calls the tech support department at Alterra for help, staffed by Neebs, Simon, and Thick. Neebs tries to be helpful, but is constrained by policies that will punish him for being ''too'' helpful. Simon is reckless and irresponsible. Thick is trying to push sales even though Appsro might die. Doraleous is a prank-caller and more helpful than any of them. The series was so popular, Unknown Worlds asked them to record a scene as Alterra personnel for use in the final version of the game (they're the ones who send rocket schematics to the ''Aurora'' while arguing about sandwiches).

* ''Film/{{Transformers}}'' had that one operator who first demanded a credit card number for a long-distance call, then asked that the guy speak very clearly, then started offering premium service packages, while on the other end of the line was ''an embattled soldier trying to call in an airstrike''.

* ''Manga/AhMyGoddess'', Keiichi gets a direct line to the Goddess Help Line, when he's trying to order a meal.

* In Madison, WI, a victim of burglary had to call 911 three times in order for police to be dispatched. They finally arrived EIGHT HOURS after the first call. Also, they mistakenly dispatched cops in Verona (a suburb) when a call was made about a suicidal woman trying to buy knives in the city itself. Even worse, a UW student called, and was hung up on when the operator didn't hear anything coherent, only screaming. The operator never dispatched officers, and the student, who had been stabbed, died of her injuries before being found by police sent to perform a welfare check. The murder is still unsolved nearly ten years later.

Can overlap with MistakenForPrankCall. As phone operators become increasingly replaced by machines, this trope has become more and more displaced by ForInconveniencePressOne. However, the OperatorFromIndia is still a common subtrope.

* An old horror comic had a man buried alive in a coffin with a telephone in it. Desperate to call for help, the man tries contacting the operator again and again, even as his air runs low. When the man finally makes a connection, the operator instead lectures him on tying up the phone lines as the man suffocates and dies.

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* As seen in the page quote, ''Film/DieHard'' has a police dispatcher give John [=McClane=] a hard time when he tries to radio in a terrorist attack. This is a slightly more justified example than usual, as he's well outside his own jurisdiction and breaking into the police frequency with a civilian radio set, and the dispatcher has no idea who the hell he is and [[MistakenForPrankCall no particular reason to believe this isn't some crackpot with a ham radio and an overactive imagination.]]

* ''Series/AbbottAndCostello'' has a skit about a particularly bizarre and abusive operator in the episode "Who Done It."

* The Jolly Roger Telephone Company is an online service that provides bots which are designed to waste the time of telemarketers by responding with various pre-written routines and otherwise saying stuff like "sure," "uh-huh" and "right" to make them think that there's someone responding to what they're saying. One of these is a "biz-bot" designed for cold-callers to businesses that is actually a pair of two bots. One of these is a male bot who after a few minutes will say that they're not the right person for the caller and transfers them to an incompetent female receptionist. This receptionist will admit that it's first day on the job and she's not really the real receptionist, insist that the caller go slow as she types what they're saying into a text, and then start talking to someone else, saying that all her lines are flashing and she doesn't know who she's talking to.

* In the ChevyChase film ''Film/FunnyFarm,'' the protagonist is desperately trying to contact the sheriff's department on the phone (because there is a dead body in his back yard). He only has a normal phone, but apparently all phones in this region are pay-phones and the operator refuses to connect him unless he puts a couple of dimes into the nonexistant coin slot.

--> "We don't care. We don't have to. We're the telephone company."

* Inverted in a case where an off-duty FBI agent was shot by two home invaders. Suffering from blood loss he tried to call the police, only for them to assume he was a drunk from his slurred speech. Fortunately the 911 operator who originally transferred the call broke in on the line and convinced the police the call was genuine.

* ''Series/GetSmart''. Given the ShoePhone RunningGag, Maxwell Smart naturally runs into this trope from time to time. In one episode he's using an actual payphone that turns into a DrowningPit, but he doesn't have the coins to call for help.
-->'''Smart:''' Operator, this is a matter of life and death!

* ''Series/GetSmart''. Given the ShoePhone RunningGag, Maxwell Smart naturally runs into this trope from time to time. In one episode he's using an actual payphone that turns into a DrowingPit, but he doesn't have the coins to call for help.

* ''FibberMcGeeAndMolly'''s Myrt, who was never heard, but always got sidetracked telling Fibber the latest gossip and never put the call through

* A RunningGag in ArsenicAndOldLace has Mortimer frantically trying to call the Happydale Sanitarium while an unhelpful operator fails again and again to connect him.

* A canadian example: when a tanker truck full of fuel crashed on a highway and burst into flames in a gigantic inferno, multiple 911 calls were placed by crashed motorists from a nearby retirement home where they found refuge to report this fire. They were all hung up on after the operators noticed ''where'' the calls were coming from and told the callers "the fire is only exploding inside your head!" believing them to be senile. There were several fired 911 operators the following day when the news had a field day with this story.