History Main / WaitingSkeleton

* In his "A Date With Markiplier" {{Gamebook|s}} series of videos, LetsPlay/{{Markiplier}} encounters one of these in the cell he and his date can find themselves imprisoned in.

* PlayedForDrama in ''Literature/EternityRoad''. A security robot that's still functioning AfterTheEnd finds the protagonists poking around a derelict bank and obeys its programming to detain the 'robbers' until the police come to arrest them. There's a pile of bones from previous intruders who have been held until they died.

* PlayedForDrama in ''Literature/EternityRoad''. A security robot that's still functioning AfterTheEnd finds two of the characters poking around a derelict bank and obeys its programming to hold the 'robbers' until they can be handed over to the police, stunning those who try to leave. There's a pile of bones from previous intruders who have been held until they died, so they have to figure out a way to bluff the robot into letting them go.

* One joke involves two men playing golf. One accidentally hits his ball into a wooded ravine, and with frustration, he tromps into it with his 7-iron club in hand. Once there, he sees a skeleton lying face-down on the ground clutching a 7-iron club of its own. Nervously, the golfer calls his friend over and tells him they have a serious problem. When his buddy asks him what's going on, the golfer says "Give me my 8-iron. You can't get out of here with a seven."

* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'': "[[Recap/SpongebobSquarepantsS2E20SquidOnStrikeSandySpongeBobAndTheWorm Squid on Strike]]" ends with [=SpongeBob=] destroying the Krusty Krab, and so Mr. Krabs orders Spongebob and Squidward to work for him forever. A time card announces a skip to "one eternity later", where they have been reduced to nothing but skeletons, yet they're still working. A bit of ArtisticLicenseBiology going on, considering that sponges and octopi are both invertebrates.

* ''WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs'': As the Queen is leaving the castle to kill Snow White, she walks past a prison cell containing a skeleton on the ground, reaching for a jug just out of its grasp. When the Queen sees it, she laughs and says "Thirsty? Have a drink!" before [[KickTheDog kicking the jug over so that it hits the skeleton and shatters it]].

* ''ComicStrip/{{Dilbert}}'' has Rule 1: "[[https://assets.amuniversal.com/175196409fb3012f2fe600163e41dd5b Ignore any signs of discomfort in other]]" from the 7 Habits of Highly Defective People.

* ''Series/MarriedWithChildren'': In one episode, the Bundys get four standby tickets for a plane trip. The airport's standby section has a skeleton with a newspaper. The headline reads "[[UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt Roosevelt]] Promises New Deal".

* A skit on ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'' has a milkman being lured by a woman into her upstairs room by the promise of sex -- and finds that it's filed with milkmen, some very old and at least one skeletonized.
* In Series/AdamRuinsEverything, when Adam is discussing the long wait for prison education programs, [[StockVisualMetaphor the camera shows a line of people.]] The head of that line is a skeleton.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Bloodborne}}'', the entrance to the Forbidden Woods is guarded by an apprentice of Provost Wilhelm, who is waiting for someone who knows the password to let them through. When you finally obtain the password, and the doors open, you find the apprentice's skeletal remains behind them--apparently, he died while waiting to fulfill Provost Wilhelm's last orders, and you have been ([[MindScrew apparently]]) talking to his corpse/ghost.

* In his "A Date With Markiplier" {{Gamebook|s}} series of videos, LetsPlay/{{Markiplier}} encounters one of these in the cell he and his date can find themselves imprisoned in.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Chowder}}'' features this trope. Chowder goes "mad with power" and turns on every light he can find until he causes a blackout. He teams up with Gorgonzola to fix the problem. To do so, they must go to a tall tower, but Chowder being...well [[TooDumbToLive Chowder]], presses all the buttons on the elevator. We cut to a pair of skeletons sitting on the floor of the elevator. Chowder asks if they should bring them along. Gorgonzola replies [[LampshadeHanging "No. They were just for a gag."]]

* ''WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog'' features this in the episode entitled "Stormy Weather". While Courage searches for Duncan, the Storm Goddess keeps Muriel up in the sky. She is tethered to what remains of her house by nothing more than a rope around her boot. Courage envisions what might happen to her if she stays that way for too long (awaiting his return). In the thought, she is nothing but a skeleton, floating around in the sky.
* On ''WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife'', Rocko has to go to the DMV and retake his driver's test [[DisproportionateRetribution over a missing gas cap]], and is asked to tie Spunky up outside. He does so, and next to Spunky is the skeleton of someone else's still-leashed dog.
* [[ParodiedTrope Parodied]] in the ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' episode "Blackout" when Doofenshmirtz boasts of how inescapable his latest trap is by showing Perry an identical trap with a skeleton trapped inside. Doofenshmirtz then complains about having to get a new Halloween decoration.

** [[https://garfield.com/comic/1984/04/23 The services on this airline are rather bad]].
** [[https://garfield.com/comic/1995/06/27 Cats don't always get rescued from trees]].
** [[https://garfield.com/comic/2006/06/26 The doctor is running very late]].

* [[ParodiedTrope Parodied]] in the ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' episode "Blackout" when Doofenshmirtz boasts of how inescapable his latest trap is by showing Perry an identical trap with a skeleton trapped inside. Doofenshmirtz then complains about having to get a new Halloween decoration.

* ''ComicStrip/{{Garfield}}'' used this trope at least 3 times.

** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS12E15HungryHungryHomer Hungry, Hungry Homer]]", as Homer prepares to go on a hunger strike to protest the Isotopes' planned move to Albuquerque, he sees the skeleton of previous striker holding a sign reading "CLEAN THE LADIES ROOM".
* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'': "[[Recap/SpongebobSquarepantsS2E20SquidOnStrikeSandySpongeBobAndTheWorm Squid on Strike]]" ends with [=SpongeBob=] destroying the Krusty Krab, and so Mr. Krabs orders Spongebob and Squidward to work for him forever. A time card announces a skip to "one eternity later", where they have been reduced to nothing but skeletons, yet they're still working. A bit of ArtisticLicenseBiology going on, considering that sponges and octopuses are both invertebrates.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Chowder}}'' features this trope. Chowder goes "mad with power" and turns on every light he can find until he causes a blackout. He team up with Gorgonzola to fix the problem. To do so, they must go to a tall tower, but Chowder being...well [[TooDumbToLive Chowder]], presses all the buttons on the elevator. We cut to a pair of skeletons sitting on the floor of the elevator. Chowder asks if they should bring them along. Gorgonzola replies [[LampshadeHanging "No. They were just for a gag."]]

[[caption-width-right:350:Let's give her five more minutes...]]

* ''Disney/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarves'': As the Queen is leaving the castle to kill Snow White, she walks past a prison cell containing a skeleton on the ground, reaching for a jug just out of its grasp. When the Queen sees it, she laughs and says "Thirsty? Have a drink!" before [[KickTheDog kicking the jug over so that it hits the skeleton and shatters it]].

* In ''VideoGame/{{Bloodborne}}'', the entrance to the Forbidden Woods is guarded by an apprentice of Provost Wilhelm, who is waiting for someone who knows the password to let them through. When you finally obtain the password, and the doors open, you find the apprentice's skeletal remains behind them--apparently, he died while waiting to fulfill Provost Wilhelm's last orders, and you have been ([[MindScrew apparently]]) talking to his ghost.

* ''ComicStrip/{{Dilbert}}'' has an example in the first of "[[https://assets.amuniversal.com/175196409fb3012f2fe600163e41dd5b The 7 Habits of Highly Defective People]]".