Line #64 Main/BlanketFort


1	%% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1453764519021955000
2	%% Please do not replace or remove without starting a new thread.
3	%%
4	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_pillow_fort.png]]
5
6	->'''Sheldon:''' Okay, so the final four forts in the first annual best fort ever contest, or Fort-Off, are: Fort Knox, Fort Ticonderoga, Fort Sumter and Fort Cozy [=McBlanket=].\
7	'''Amy:''' I'd say, Knox over Ticonderoga, 'cause it's got the gold. \
8	'''Sheldon:''' Mm-hmm. \
9	'''Amy:''' And [=McBlanket=] over Sumter 'cause it has a higher thread count.
10	-->-- ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'', "The Fortification Implementation"
11
12	A classic childhood pastime for many is building a "blanket fort" or "pillow fort" out of pillows, couch cushions, blankets, and other bedding materials to make a sort of "clubhouse" or "secret hangout".
13
14	Fort building can be enjoyed by teens and adults, as well. Many parenting books even suggest that parents build one with their children as a bonding tool.
15
16	When an adult builds a fort in fiction, it usually illustrates the character is young at heart or LivingOutAChildhoodDream.
17
18	Compare KidsPreferBoxes, TreehouseOfFun.
19
20	----
21	!!Examples:
22
23	[[foldercontrol]]
24
25	[[folder:Advertisements]]
26	* A Cheetos commercial has Chester Cheetah and an employee build a fort of mattresses.
27	[[/folder]]
28
29	[[folder:Comic Strips]]
30	* In ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide'', a man is seen in his fort, but his wife tells him to rebuild it later because she's having guests over and needs the cushions for them.
31	[[/folder]]
32
33	[[folder:Fan Works]]
34	* A popular piece of ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' fan art has a young [[http://dreatos.deviantart.com/art/Book-Fort-Twilight-258153548 Twilight Sparkle]] make one of these out of books.
35	* In ''Fanfic/TangledUpInYou'', Marinette and Adrien build one in her room during a sleepover. It's stated that Marinette hasn't made one in ages, while Adrien never has.
36	* At one point in ''FanFic/TheRWBYLoops'' Ruby and Blake have an ''actual debate'' over whether a pillow fort is better then a box fort. Yang refuses to get involved, since Ruby's her sister and Blake's her girlfriend, and Weiss torpedoes the argument by [[TakeAThirdOption suggesting a book fort instead.]]
37	* In the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' of Creator/AAPessimal, Ponder Stibbons and his Assassin wife Johanna are knucking down to raising a family. The one thing you can be sure about is that the three daughters of a Wizard and an Assassin will be individual and somewhat quirky. Youngest daughter Ruth is a [[ChildProdigy talented musician]]. Johanna finds herself shaking her head, looking on the three-sided arrangement of banked keyboards in her living room [[note]]Ruth has been the victim of inspiration particles and is taking a cue from rock keyboards players like Keith Emerson and Rick Wakeman, who arranged their instruments in a three-sided square on stage. She gets this sort of leakage from the Roundworld in vivid dreams with full stereo sound.[[/note]]. Johanna reflects that ''other'' little girls under ten just build a blanket fort in the living room. Not a Keyboards Redoubt.
38	* ''Fanfic/ApexPredatorMHA'': Some students of class 1-A build a blanket fort ''in the classroom''. Aizawa, being far more permissive than in canon, lets them do it.
39	[[/folder]]
40
41	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
42	* A creepy scene in ''Film/TheSixthSense'' involved Cole encountering a ghost girl in a blanket fort he built in his room.
43	* In ''Film/MiracleRun'', Corinne creates one under the table to calm down Steven and Philip after the power shuts off because she [[StrugglingSingleMother forgot to pay the electricity bill]].
44	[[/folder]]
45
46	[[folder:Literature]]
47	* The book ''Corduroy's Sleepover'' has the titular bear build a fort.
48	* ''If You Give a Pig a Party'' also features one.
49	* In the ''Literature/{{Redwall}}'' book ''Mossflower'', a blanket fort is one of the clues: ''Look up and find the secret is yours, Your castle, your fort, Or so you thought.'' The series of clues is a note from father to son about how to get to Salamandastron; this part is trying to tell him that the clue is on the underside of a table - when Boar was young, he played under the table, and with the tablecloth there, he always pretended it was a fort or castle. They realize what it means when Boar's daughter, Bella, reminisces about the table and how when she was young she used to pretend she was in a tent.
50	* In ''[[Literature/AuntDimity Aunt Dimity and the Deep Blue Sea]]'', Will and Rob build "a complicated complex of sea caves for their seal pups, using blankets, tables, model cars, knights in armor, plastic dinosaurs, and a variety of other items seldom observed in the wild by the Seal Conservation Trust but which my sons deemed essential to a baby seal's happiness."
51	* In Andrew Clements's school story ''Literature/AboutAverage'', the main character, Jordan, is great at babysitting and one of her best strategies, especially when dealing with toddlers, is building forts. She's found that you can use just about anything to make one and it really works to keep kids entertained.
52	* ''Literature/ABoyMadeOfBlocks'': While Alex is babysitting Matt and Clare's kids, they and Sam build a blanket fort that they pretend is a ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'' house.
53	* In ''Literature/AnUnkindnessOfGhosts'', Aster and Giselle hide inside one while they [[spoiler:work on decrypting Lune Grey's notes]].
54	[[/folder]]
55
56	[[folder:Live Action TV]]
57	* ''Series/{{Community}}'':
58	** [[Main/{{Manchild}} Troy and Abed]] build an epic blanket fort in "Conspiracy Theories and Interior Design", which takes up an entire hallway and is used by Greendale students like a miniature city.
59	** In "Pillows and Blankets", Troy and Abed disagree on whether pillows or blankets are the superior fort-building material and each build their own forts, with Abed creating the pillow fort Pillowtown and Troy building the blanket fort Blanketsburg. [[SeriousBusiness This disagreement escalates into all out war between the forts]], which threatens to destroy Troy and Abed's friendship.
60	** "Digital Exploration Of Interior Design" has a subplot about the rivaling Blanket Fort and Pillow Fort of Troy and Abed.
61	** Troy and Abed also made a "second bedroom" out of blankets when Annie moved in. They initially gave the fort to Annie, but she got pissed when she discovered that there was an entire unused bedroom that she could have been sleeping in instead, which they were using as a "[[{{Holodeck}} Dreamatorium]]." As a compromise, Troy and Abed moved into the blanket fort while Annie got the bedroom they had been using.
62	* The episode "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS4E22Restless Restless]]" from ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' features "General Surgeon" Riley and Adam as a human building a blanket fort during a security breach in Buffy's dream sequence.
63	* One recurring segment on ''Series/TheLateShowWithStephenColbert'' has Stephen and a guest enter a blanket fort and ask each other questions while taking on the mentality of small children.
64	* ''Series/{{Friends}}'': Joey builds a fort out of boxes from furniture. "Why don't you be a man and come watch TV in the fort?"
65	* ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'': Sheldon becomes upset because he was not invited to a symposium, reminding him of when his brother and sister made forts and never let him in. To cheer him up, Amy suggests he build his own fort, and the two of them spend their first night together playing in Fort Cozy [=McBlanket=].
66	* ''Series/StrangerThings'': When Mike is hiding Eleven in his basement, he builds her a small fort made out of blankets for her to sleep in. [[spoiler:He keeps it up after her disappearance in the season finale, as a sort of ShrineToTheFallen]]. In Season 2, Mike is shown sitting in the fort [[spoiler:while trying to contact Eleven on the walkie-talkie]].
67	* In [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=16&v=aEmaWIxyhj8&feature=emb_logo this]] ''Series/SesameStreet'' [=YouTube=] video, Louie gives parents advice on taking a bit of time for themselves while cooped up with their kids during the UsefulNotes/CovidPandemic, while his son Elmo shouts in the background for him to come help build a pillow fort.
68	[[/folder]]
69
70
71	[[folder:Music]]
72	* From the Music/KatyPerry song "Teenage Dream": ''"Got a motel and / Built a fort out of sheets"''.
73	* From the Lisa Loeb song "Alone": ''"You do not cheat me of my childhood / You bring me blankets for the walls of my forts"''.
74	[[/folder]]
75
76	[[folder:Puppet Shows]]
77	* On ''Series/ThePajanimals'', Apollo and Squacky build a blanket-and-pilllow fort in "Team Fort," though Squacky says at first that they're "building a [[{{Malaproper}} fork]]."
78	[[/folder]]
79
80	[[folder:Video Games]]
81	* In VideoGame/AHatInTime, Hat Kid herself has one in her bedroom that's explicitly called such in one of the [[http://ahatintime.wikia.com/wiki/Pillow_Fort achievements]]. Though it's technically [[NonIndicativeName not a "fort" per se]], but is instead a massive pile of pillows haphazardly piled up along one wall that's big enough to ''swim'' in, and even includes a diving board on the upper platform, and a secret room of all things at the bottom, the latter of which is required to get the aforementioned achievement.
82	* In ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}'', looking around Iron Wake[[note]]An outpost of Steel Meridian you can visit after completing the first stage of the quest ''Chains of Harrow''[[/note]], you can find [[PokemonSpeak Clem]] hiding in a fort made from [[DeployableCover blunts]].
83	* Alice in ''VideoGame/DetroitBecomeHuman'' has a fort made of curtains and boxes in the corner of her bedroom.
84	[[/folder]]
85
86	[[folder:Web Comics]]
87	* Most major characters in ''Webcomic/ProblemSleuth'' build a fort out of whatever they have on hand at some point or another.
88	* [[http://xkcd.com/219/ This]] ''Webcomic/{{xkcd}}'' strip discusses the emotional aspect of building one.
89	* ''Webcomic/MandatoryRollerCoaster'' presents an adult modification of the blanket fort [[http://mandatoryrollercoaster.com/post/35046940833/blanketforts here]].
90	* ''Webcomic/DominicDeegan'': Dominic's brother Gregory is fond of making couch fortresses when he needs to sleep over at a place. Their father Donovan took over Greg's fort once when he was ExiledToTheCouch, suggesting Greg picked up the habit from him.
91	* [[https://www.gocomics.com/breaking-cat-news/2020/11/08 This]] ''Webcomic/BreakingCatNews'' strip demonstrates that blanket forts can be just as enjoyable for cats as they are for children.
92	[[/folder]]
93
94	[[folder:Web Original]]
95	* The comic meme [[https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/dog-fort Dog Fort]] features a number of costumed dogs being portrayed as a sort of LighterAndSofter pseudo-military operation, all connected through a central command unit which consists of a golden retriever in a pillow fort, reporting as the eponymous Dog Fort.
96	[[/folder]]
97
98	[[folder:Western Animation]]
99	* In the ''WesternAnimation/OneHundredAndOneDalmatianStreet'' Short; "Merry Pups", Dylan constructs a Watch Tower using the presents around the Christmas Tree.
100	* On ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'', Hank and his buddies go on a road trip to a fancy hotel. Dale, Bill, and Boomhauer build a fort, of course.
101	* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
102	** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS5E9TheLastTemptationOfHomer The Last Temptation of Homer]]", when Homer goes to Capital City with Mindy to attend an energy convention, the bellhop assumes that Homer & Mindy will be getting it on.
103	--->'''Bellhop:''' TV's there...bathroom's there...and there's your king-size bed for...''[wolf-whistles, makes a cat noise, imitates a bed squeaking, purrs, pants, barks, howls, twiddles his lips]'' Hubba hubba!\
104	'''Homer:''' Stop that! I love my wife and family. All I'm gonna use this bed for is sleeping, eating, and maybe building a little fort.
105	** In another episode, Bart & Lisa use a bunch of UPS boxes to build a giant fort in the backyard. The UPS guy complains that they're wasting the boxes, and eventually brings in a bunch of other UPS guys to wage battle against them.
106	* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'':
107	** One episode has Peter building a fort out of pillows on an airplane (complete with "No Girls Allowed" sign).
108	** Another one has Stewie making a fort out of [[spoiler: Brian's failed novel "Faster Than The Speed of Love"]].
109	---> '''Stewie:''' My house is made of mediocrity.
110	* BMO and Jake build one in the ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' episode "[[Recap/AdventureTimeS5E16Puhoy Puhoy]]", which Finn crawls through and leads him to a world made of pillows. [[spoiler:Then Finn gets lost in the pillow world, finds a pillow-woman, settles down with her to start a family, has pillow-children, grows old, and finally dies...only to wake up back in Ooo to realize it was AllJustADream.]]
111	* In ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo'', the team decides to hold a slumber party to help Cyborg get over his fear of the dark. Robin suggests they build a blanket fort, and everyone agrees, until they remember it's Robin and his blueprints require two hours just to lay the foundation so he does it himself. It has several floors, guest bedrooms, a bowling alley, artwork, and who knows what else.
112	* Captain Hero's "Pillow Fort of Solitude" from the ''WesternAnimation/DrawnTogether'' episode "Terms of Endearment".
113	* One of these is actually key to the plot in "Remember the Pillow Fort" from ''WesternAnimation/DragonTales''. Max and Ord agree to build one together, but then get into an argument over what color the pillows should be.
114	* In "Thumbelina's Wild Ride" from [[Creator/DisneyChannel Disney Junior]]'s ''[[WesternAnimation/GoldieAndBear Goldie & Bear]]'', Thumbelina builds one with Goldie and Bear when babysitting them. It's actually pretty posh.
115	* In the ''WesternAnimation/MuppetBabies2018'' episode, "The Blanket Fort", Piggy and Summer build an entire blanket kingdom.
116	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}'': In one episode the ISIS staff start slacking off while Malory is away. Krieger uses some boxes filled with the paperwork they're supposed to be doing to build "Fort Kick-Ass".
117	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Bluey}}'': 'Cubby' has the girls making this as the premise, but as they begin adding new rooms into it, during the episode's climax it ended up becoming a blanket '''mansion''', spanning the entire living room. Naturally, the climax in question is them (and their dad) getting lost in the many rooms of said fort.
118	[[/folder]]

Context Main / BlanketFort