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"HELP! GET THIS OFFA ME!"
"You guys hear something?"

Jessie: HEGH MEH! MAH FAH IIH SUH! (Help me! My foot is stuck!)
Cloud: I DON'T CARE IF YOU WANNA F**K! WE GOTTA GO!

An instance when a character (let's call him Bob) gets stuck in a tight spot and cannot get loose without help. This can be played for humor, if Bob's predicament is more annoying or humiliating than dangerous; or it can be played for drama, if Bob is immobilized in the path of imminent danger or in an isolated area where he is unlikely to be rescued, and may even end in a Life-or-Limb Decision. If there are other characters nearby, expect them to either laugh at Bob's misfortune or try to help him get free, depending on the nature of the characters and the seriousness of the situation.

This trope does not apply to instances where a character briefly slips or gets a foot caught but is able to pull free after a second or two. Those are just little beats to show that this trope could happen and thus increase the tension.

While mostly a comedy trope, can also be used for Fanservice if the person getting stuck is, say, a young lady with nice legs and/or a shapely rear. Especially when combined with Helpless Kicking.

Sub-tropes include Stuck in the Doorway, Stuck in a Chimney and Clutching Hand Trap. Compare Cat Up a Tree, which may or may not involve this depending on the cat. Broken Heel is a situation where a fleeing character is crippled or slowed, with a similar need for rescue.


Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Advertising 
  • The commercial for Action 52 has the Cheetah Men coming out of a TV with Hercules getting stuck.
  • This old ad for Fruit Gushers. Featuring Willa Holland and Daelan Kael, the latter gets his head stuck in his locker after it turns into an orange. Willa just rolls her eyes and leaves him when the bell rings and no one else bothers to help out. It goes as far in one version that he's still stuck at night after everyone except the janitor has left.

    Anime & Manga 
  • In Episode 17 of the anime adaptation of Amagami, weight-conscious Rihoko ends up stuck in a hole in a fence trying to take a shortcut, and is saved by her childhood friend Junichi. He later widens the hole for her when she tries again later, to give her the confidence to continue her diet.
  • In the first episode of the anime adaptation of Birdy the Mighty, Hayamiya ends up stuck in a hole in a fence when she and Senkawa go to investigate an abandoned building.
  • In Episode 8 of El Cazador de la Bruja, Blue Eyes attempts to sneak into Rosenberg's office through the air vent, but gets stopped at her hips, forcing her to abandon the plan and remark that she shouldn't have eaten cake that day. She tries again in the next episode, and though she still has to struggle a bit to fit, she makes it inside.
  • In Episode 13 of Chocotto Sister, while playing hooky from her usual activities, Yurika gets stuck in the window of a public restroom. Choco happens by and helps pull her out.
  • In the Crayon Shin-chan movie, Fierceness That Invites Storm! Yakiniku Road of Honor, when the Noharas flee into the sewers to escape from the authorities, Misae gets stuck at her rear in a narrow portion of the corridor. It takes Shin poking her hard from behind to get her to free herself, and once more when she gets stuck again further on.
    • Also, in the movie Intense Battle! Robo Dad Strikes Back, when the roboticized Hiroshi starts going haywire in the dining room, Misae dives under the table, but clearly can't fit all the way underneath.
    • In the anime episode 'Door Jam', Misae ends up stuck when she tries to fit through a hole in the wall.
Shin: Hey mom, maybe if you fart it'll blow you through the other side.
  • Crossplay Love: Otaku x Punk: Shuumei spends all of Chapter 24 with his foot stuck between river rocks, until Hana comes by to help him.
  • In Episode 7 of Godannar, when climbing into her mech, Shizuru briefly gets her shapely rear wedged in the entry hatch, even when Shibakusa said she could fit. She calls him a liar before wriggling her way in.
  • GTO: The Early Years:
    • Eikichi's fancy new wig gets stuck in a train door and he can't move without revealing that he's bald. And then Makoto shows up and starts picking a fight with a rival gang...
      • There's a funny poster in that panel warning train passengers to "please mind your hair to prevent being stuck at the door".
    • While peeping on the woman in the neighboring apartment, Ryuji notices a second hole in the wall, and sticks his penis into it. What a great time for the Enoshima gang to show up calling for the Oni-Baku's blood!
  • In Hamtaro, the character, Stucky, is this trope alone. He gets his name from the fact that he's always stuck in a piece of a hamster tunnel that he always rolls around in (but likes being in).
    • Furthermore, in the episode 'Hannah is in Love', Dexter encounters the titular Hannah stuck in a hole in a wall, which she blames on 'too much Southern cooking' after he tugs her out.
  • In Chapter 57 of Kill Me Baby, while escaping from an angry dog, Sonya ends up stuck halfway in a hole in a fence. Yasuna manages to help her get out by making her angry enough to squeeze herself through. She then talks about going on a diet, and tries to fit through the hole herself, reasoning that by repeatedly squeezing through it every day will eventually slim her down, only to get stuck herself.
  • In Episode 10 of Lapis Re:LiGHTs, Lynette gets stuck in a hole in a wall, necessitating her friends to pull her through.
  • In Episode 14 of the Little Lulu anime, Tubby winds up stuck in a rabbit's burrow after getting dared by Lulu into climbing into said burrow in an attempt to flush out a rabbit.
  • A similar incident happens to Mitsuba in Mitsudomoe when she's trapped in the bathroom and tries escaping out the window.
  • In Episode 18 of Monster Rancher , Golem is too big to climb out of a manhole, and is told to wait where he is while the other Searchers make their escape. Not wishing to be left alone, he simply bursts through the ground.
  • Pokémon: The Series:
    • In the episode, "The Case of the K-9 Caper", while Ash and Pikachu are running the obstacle course, Pikachu gets his tail stuck on barb wire. He responds by letting out his Thunder Shock, which electrocutes the whole wire.
    • In another episode, Jigglypuff somehow gets stuck in a Blastoise’s cannon, and she sings while she’s in there causing the Blastoise to be asleep.
    • In the episode "The Screen Actor's Guilt", while following Misty's Togepi and a Smoochum, who were in turn following a robotic Skiploom piloted by Team Rocket, Pikachu gets stuck in a hole in a wall that they go through. Jessie briefly taunts Pikachu for being too big to fit through, as well as saying that, since it's only halfway in, they're only 'getting a peek at you', before easily pulling it inside.
    • In the episode "A Hole Lotta Trouble', Jessie ends up stuck in a hole in a cave ceiling when she winds up alone with May (which the latter considers payback for the former calling her 'heavy'). May is unable to get her unstuck by herself, but a Loudred comes storming in and makes Jessie's spot collapse in, freeing her.
    • In yet another episode, Lyra's Marill gets wedged between two buildings; it is freed with the help of Pikachu, Piplup, and a Water Gun attack.
    • In Pikachu's Vacation, Charizard getting his head stuck in a metal pipe is what eventually leads to Pikachu's group and the gang of bullies becoming friends.
  • The Sad Tale of the Principal Post: The story is about how the father of a family somehow getting stuck under the main pillar of the recently finished house the family's living in.
  • In Sankarea, Ranko ends up stuck in some form of tunnel while trying to follow a cat.
  • During the Stardust Crusaders arc of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Mariah's Stand Bastet causes Joseph and Avdol to become magnetized and wind up stuck together in several risque positions, to the point where an old woman that had been earlier smitten with Joseph's "daring" nature (the magnetism flipping her skirt) begins pummeling the two with her umbrella. In addition, it causes the two to become stuck to Railroad Tracks of Doom.
    Joseph Joestar: (while getting pummeled by the old lady) HELP ME! OH MY GOD!!
  • In Episode 34 the Time Bokan series Zenderman, Muujo gets stuck at her rear in the bottle-like hatch of one of her and her crew's ships, forcing her henchman Tobocke to comically squeeze her in with a giant cork attachment.
  • Tokyo 24th Ward: The serious version of this scenario forms part of the first episode's (almost literal) "trolley problem." The protagonists' Childhood Friend Mari chases her runaway puppy onto the railroad tracks, and as she's trying to rescue it, manages to get her foot wedged under one of the rails in such a way that she can't get it loose again. At the same time, one of the 24th Ward's advanced automated passenger trains is speeding down the tracks; not only is there no one in the engineer's compartment, but because the train was rushed out without proper safety trials in order to meet a deadline, it refuses to acknowledge the signal telling it to apply the brakes. There is a junction that can be used to switch the train to another track, but at its current speed, it's almost certain that the train will derail when it hits that junction. Luckily, by working together and utilizing their newly-acquired superpowers, the protagonists are able to rescue Mari and her dog without sacrificing anyone.
  • In Chapter 22 of Urara Meirocho (Episode 11 of the anime), during the Rank 9 promotion exam, Koume gets her belly stuck in a hole due to gaining weight, thanks to Chiya fattening her up.
  • Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out!: In Episode 2, Hana chases a cat and jumps into a bush fence to try and catch it, but it escapes. When she tries to get out, she realizes that her clothes (and boobs) got ensnared and she's stuck in there, so she calls out for her senpai Shinichi to help her out. Hilarity Ensues when, first, Shinichi gives her a spanking to put back her skirt in place (her panty-clad rear got exposed), and then when he's trying to pull her out, a couple of passerby women see them and, due to the way he's holding her by the hips, assume they're doing something dirtier and run off screaming.
  • In one volume of Yotsuba&!, Fuuka ends up locked in a bathroom, and gets stuck trying to escape through the window.

    Comic Strips 
  • Garfield
    • The eponymous fat cat once spent an arc of strips stuck in the mailbox.
    • Multiple times, Garfield has ended up stuck in the pet door, once even taking the entire front door with him in the process.

    Eastern European Animation 
  • KikoRiki: In "The Sweetness of Honey", Barry accidentally gets himself stuck inside his own bathroom stall after escaping his house and crawling through a labyrinth, and Wally has to pull him out.

    Fairy Tales 
  • "Ansige Karamba, the Glutton": A comedic example; after Paama makes millet dumplings, Ansige tries to lick the residue out of the mortar and gets stuck. Paama calls the villagers to help, claiming that her husband stuck his head in the mortar to "show her" after she accused him of being thick-headed.

    Fan Works 
  • In one story of the Facing the Future Series, after Danny and Sam get coated in ghost bee honey, Jack attempts to use the Ghost Weasel to clean them up, only to end up sucking them into it. Sam looks on the bright side that it's cozier than making out in Danny's closet.
  • In Olive's Last Partner, the events of the Odd Squad episode "The One That Got Away" where Otto gets stuck under Oprah's juice bar is discussed. However, unlike in the episode, the story shows Olive trying to yank Otto out from under it by his legs just before Oprah calls and Oscar tells her about his missing gadgets. She's distracted by Oscar and his missing gadgets report briefly before she gets right back to trying to free Otto.

    Films — Animation 
  • In Aladdin, Iago winds up getting stuck in a door when Jafar slams him into it.
  • In Bolt, there’s an instance where Bolt gets his head stuck in between two metal poles.
  • In The Brave Little Toaster, Blanky gets stuck twice.
  • In A Bug's Life, Heimlich gets stuck while luring away the bird menacing Flik, Dot, and the circus bugs. The ants, looking at a safe distance, comment on how brave he is offering himself as live bait.
  • In Chicken Run, Bunty gets stuck under the fence near the beginning of the movie when they're trying to escape.
  • In The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Wallace has been putting on weight recently, resulting in him becoming too fat to fit down the chute leading from his bedroom to the kitchen, and requiring Gromit to use an added mechanism to force him through it via a giant mallet. Later on, he slims down enough to fit through normally again due to an increased appetite for vegetables from becoming the titular Were-Rabbit.
  • In Dumbo, when we see the elephants getting loaded onto their car on Casey Jr., the last in line, Elephant Matriarch, ends up getting stuck forcing the circus employees to push her in.
  • Nemo gets himself stuck a couple times in Finding Nemo, once in a piece of coral in the beginning, and then in the filter tube in the dentist's fish tank.
  • This occurred in Fun and Fancy Free when Mickey, Donald and Goofy were first entering the giant’s castle. Mickey and Donald manage to squeeze under the door, but Goofy got stuck. Mickey and Donald pulled him inside, but Goofy briefly lost his pants in the process.
  • Hercules
    • Herc assumes this is the case when he first meets Phil, as all he sees is Phil's rear end coming out of a bush.
    • Pegasus gets stuck trying to get into Phil's house.
  • Ice Age:
    • Throughout the series, Scrat gets stuck in numerous places while trying to get that acorn.
    • In Ice Age: The Meltdown, Ellie gets stuck under a log because, having been raised by possums, she doesn't realize she's a mammoth and can simply lift the log out of the way.
  • In The Incredibles, Elastigirl winds up getting stuck in between two automatic doors. She gets herself out by snagging a key card from one of the guards.
  • The Land Before Time:
    • In The Great Valley Adventure, Littlefoot gets his foot stuck in a tree trunk.
    • In The Mysterious Island, Cera gets stuck halfway in a log when trying to hide from swarming leaf gobblers in the beginning.
    • In The Secret of Saurus Rock, the group winds up inside a hollow log stretched across a ravine after escaping a Sharptooth, and escape through a hole in the top. Cera squeezes through with difficulty, while Spike winds up stuck, just as the Sharptooth returns, resulting in a hasty rescue.
  • In The Lion King, Pumbaa winds up getting stuck under a tree root while he’s being chased by Nala.
  • The Little Mermaid:
  • In Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted, the main animals travel through vents to get into an attic of the Monte Carlo casino. Alex, Marty and Melman all come in from different vents and collide with each other tying themselves in a knot. They find themselves under another vent and hear Gloria coming down fast from it. The boys panic and try to get out of the way so she wouldn't crush them, but they couldn't because they're all tangled up. Fortunately, Gloria gets stuck as she's coming out of the vent giving the boys a chance to disassemble. While Alex and Marty prepare the next phase of Alex's plan, Melman pulls Gloria out of the vent.
  • In The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, (or to be more precise, “Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree”) Pooh winds up getting stuck in Rabbit’s front door due to him overeating. He was stuck in that hole for months!
    Rabbit: Well, it all comes from eating too much.
    Pooh: It all comes from not having front doors big enough!
    • And then, when he finally does get unstuck from Rabbit's door, he's pushed out with such force that he flies into a hole in a tree, wedging himself in and scaring the bees away from their hive. Needless to say, with the supply of honey left behind, he's not anxious to get unstuck in a hurry.
    Eeyore: Stuck again.
    Christopher Robin: Don't worry, Pooh! We'll get you out!
    Pooh: No hurry! Take your time!
  • In My Little Pony: The Movie (1986), the ponies get stuck on a giant spider web.
  • In Once Upon a Forest, Russel, the fat hedgehog, gets stuck in between the sewer grates when the trio attempt to flee from a steamroller approaching their path. Abigail and Edgar budge him out hanging on his feet.
  • In 101 Dalmatians, when Tibbs is trying to secretly help the puppies escape Horace and Jasper, he helps them escape through a little hole in the wall. The last one in line is Rolly, but being a chubby puppy, he couldn’t fit through as easily as the other puppies. Jasper caught this right at the instant when Tibbs finally got him through.
  • In Peter Pan, Tinker Bell's first attempt to get out of the drawer was through the keyhole, but she got stuck because her hips were too big.
  • In Recess: School's Out, Miss Finster gets stuck when trying to enter the school via the basement window.
    Miss Finster: I'm stuck! Curse these bodacious hips of mine!
  • In Sing, during the flood scene, Meena the elephant gets shoved into the ticket booth window, and the velocity of the water got her stuck inside it and caused the water inside the theater to build up. Rosita and Gunter tried to get her unplugged but they were mostly unsuccessful until Johnny helped out; if it weren't for him Meena would have drowned.
  • In Tarzan II, the interquel to Tarzan, Tantor gets stuck halfway in a hole, remaining there for a long time and fearing the worst for Terk until she comes back and pulls him out.
  • Toy Story:
    • Happens to Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story as a result of the fireworks rocket Sid Phillips strapped onto his back being caught between two fence pickets when he and Woody try to catch up to the Davises' van.
    • Employed at least three times in Toy Story 3:
      • One of the three aliens gets stuck under the hatch of the garbage container when they want to get away from Sunnyside. Woody sees it and returns to help the little fellow. Cue the Ankle Drag by Lotso.
      • Jessie is stuck between pieces of trash when the toys are dropped off at the junk yard. Buzz comes to save her.
      • Lotso is stuck under a heavy piece of junk on the Conveyor Belt o' Doom and cries out for help. Woody and Buzz come to his aid before Lotso could get shredded.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • A prime example of this is in A Christmas Story, when Flick is triple dog dared to stick his tongue on the flagpole. Mrs. Shields had to call the fire department to release him.
  • In The Avengers, Romanoff's leg becomes caught between two metal poles after she and Bruce get thrown into another room by an explosion.
  • In the 2000 monster flick Crocodile, blonde co-ed Sunny is making her way through the woods when she steps in a tangle of tree roots and her foot becomes trapped. Unfortunately for her, her screaming and struggling attracts the eponymous giant pissed-off reptile, and she's unable to free herself before the crocodile devours her.
  • Doctor... Series:
    • In Doctor in Love, Mrs. Mimps' son gets his head stuck in a saucepan three times; on the third time, his sibling has also gotten their head stuck in a waste bin.
    • Doctor in Distress (1963): After kissing Iris in the Hampden Cross Hospital bathroom, Sir Lancelot sits in the sink and gets his rear end stuck in it. When Iris tries to free him, the hot tap is set off causing much discomfort.
    • Doctor in Trouble: After hiding in an air pipe to avoid the Master-at-Arms, Dr. Burke becomes stuck inside and needs Ophelia to help him get out.
  • In Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Lorelei attempts to escape a locked room through a porthole window, but her hips get her stuck in the window.
  • In the Growing Pains movie Return of the Seavers, during a blackout, Carol gets stuck in a dog door due to her pregnant belly.
  • Halloween:
    • In Halloween (1978), Annie gets stuck in a window. After she gets freed, she tells Lindsay not to tell anyone about it, but she does anyway.
    • Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later: Sarah attempts to escape Michael Myers by riding a dumbwaiter (which also contains the corpse of her recently-murdered boyfriend) up to the top floor. As she's getting out, however, her foot gets stuck underneath the corpse, meaning her leg is still half-inside the dumbwaiter when Michael cuts the rope supporting it. The falling dumbwaiter breaks her leg, leaving her unable to escape when Michael comes up the stairs after her.
  • In Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, Kevin gets his foot stuck in between the rocks attempting to flee from the Homeless Pigeon Person. She dislodges his foot while Kevin is screaming. He runs away, but turns back realizing she's not scary at all
  • In Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey, when the three pets are escaping the pound, Sassy and Shadow manage to escape through the fence, but Chance gets his collar stuck on it. He manages to make it out eventually.
    • This also happened on Homeward Bound: Lost In San Francisco when they were escaping the airport.
  • In The Horror of Party Beach, female lead Elaine is searching for evidence of the film's monsters in a flooded quarry when said monsters suddenly appear from the water. As she attempts to flee, Elaine stumbles and gets her foot caught between two rocks; while she does eventually get loose, the resulting Twisted Ankle prevents her from fleeing quickly enough to escape the monsters, and she only survives because the other characters show up in the nick of time.
  • In Jurassic Park, Tim's foot gets stuck under the jeep, preventing him from escaping before the T. rex pushes the car down the slope and into the tree. This gives Grant a chance to rescue the boy.
  • Played for Drama in The Last Descent, which is based on the real-life Nutty Putty Cave tragedy. The protagonist, John, gets stuck upside-down in a narrow shaft while exploring the caves, and despite the rescuers' best efforts to try to release him, he ends up succumbing to cardiac arrest.
  • In Milo And Otis, the titular cat gets stuck in a deep hole, only for Otis to show up at the nick of time to rescue him.
  • In MouseHunt, Ernie gets stuck in a chimney trying to chase after the mouse.
  • Mutiny on the Buses: After Arthur crashes his motorbike into a workman's tent, Olive ends up stuck bottom-first in a manhole.
  • 127 Hours has the dramatic version of this trope as its primary focus. It's the true story of Aron Ralston, whose arm got pinned by a boulder.
  • In Pete's Dragon (1977), Elliot gets himself stuck in the lighthouse when trying to light it.
  • The Phantom of the Opera (1998): While fleeing from the Phantom, Paulette gets her foot trapped between two rocks, allowing the Phantom to catch up to her.
  • In Resident Evil (2002), several people get trapped in an elevator. When they manage to partially open the doors, one woman tries to squeeze through, but gets stuck and is decapitated.
  • In Scream (1996), Tatum gets stuck in the pet door of Stu's garage while trying to escape from Ghostface, who proceeds to raise the garage door, crushing her head against the frame.
  • In Terror from the Year 5000, a nurse gets her foot stuck in a fallen tree as she's running away from the eponymous Terror. She gets free after a few moments, but the delay is enough for the Terror to catch and kill her.
  • In Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace, Jar Jar gets his hand stuck in Anakin's pod racer.
  • During the wingsuit scene in Transformers: Dark of the Moon, when Starscream tears the helicopters apart, one of the wingsuit pilots clearly screams "I'm stuck! I'm stuck!".
  • In the Spanish short film La Cabina (The Booth), the protagonist gets trapped in the titular phone booth, desperatly asking for help to any passerby. Some try to help, but most just hang around, laughing at his situation. Then the phone company's crewmen arrive and take the booth away with the man still inside...

    Literature 
  • On Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Alice gets stuck inside the White Rabbit's home after she grows too big while inside.
  • Arthur: The book version of "D.W. Thinks Big" has Arthur saying this trope word-for-word when he attempts to go down a drain to fish out the wedding ring.
  • In Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Augustus Gloop winds up sucked into a glass pipe after falling into the Chocolate Room's river. He proceeds to get stuck in it, owing to his girth; his mother suggests they smash it as the other members of the tour group watch helplessly...until the pressure of the flowing chocolate building up behind him sends him shooting onwards towards a fudge-preparation room. Depending on the adaptation, he can be stuck for several minutes before he's "freed". (At the end of the novel, it's revealed that he was squeezed thin as a result of all this.)
    • Later, Mr. Wonka suggests that this might be the case for Veruca Salt when she's tossed down the bad nut chute — otherwise she's headed for an incinerator — and her desperate parents go into the Nut Room to see if they can pull her out, but not only is it not the case, they wind up being tossed down it too!
  • The first Farmyard Tales story involves the youngest pig, Curly getting stuck in the gap of a hen run fence after he eats up the hens' breakfast.
  • Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe combines this trope with Railroad Tracks of Doom, to tragic effect.
  • In How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, the Grinch gets stuck "only once for a moment or two" when going down a chimney.
  • Jennings: In Thanks to Jennings, Jennings gets his head stuck in a park railing. Darbishire eventually releases him by using a borrowed car jack to force the railings apart.
  • In Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great by Judy Blume, Sondra Van Arden gets stuck in the milk delivery chute when Sheila and her friends decide to sneak into Mouse Ellis' house to play hide-and-seek. Sondra's friends come to her rescue to get her unstuck and then tend to her wounds afterward.
  • In The Railway Series book Henry the Green Engine: In "The Flying Kipper", when Henry crashes while pulling the titular train, his driver and fireman jump clear; the fireman lands headfirst in the show and struggles so much nobody can pull him out until later.
  • Stick Cat:
    • At the start of A Tail Of Two Kitties, Edith ends up stuck in the hole in the bathroom cupboard. She insists it's because Stick Cat made the hole smaller. It happens again at the end of the book.
    • The major driving plot point of A Tale Of Two Kitties is that Mr. Music, who works in the piano factory in the building across the street from Stick Cat's, got his arms stuck in a piano when the lid slammed shut on them. Stick Cat feels he needs to go over there and help him.
    • In Cats in the City, Stick Cat sees a woman named Hazel making a large amount of bagel dough in a giant mixing tub in the building across the street from Edith's apartment. He sees Edith slip on coffee she left on her ladder and fall into the mixing tub, unable to get out because the dough is too thick. He gets Edith to help him go over to her building and rescue her before she gets completely submerged in the dough.
    • Invoked in "Two Catch a Theif". Stick Cat decides to get the burglar who robbed Goose's and Tiffany's apartments stuck in the hole between their apartments to catch him. The plan is a success.
  • In Winnie the Pooh, after eating too much honey, Pooh gets stuck halfway through Rabbit's "front door" (burrow) and has to go some days without eating before he loses enough weight to be pulled out successfully.
  • In the Warrior Cats book Midnight, this is played for laughs twice with Squirrelpaw. The first time, Brambleclaw finds her tangled in a bramble bush and she explains that she thought there was room to go underneath it, and he points out helpfully that there isn't. The second time, she gets stuck under a wire fence, and while the toms start arguing with each other about what to do, the she-cats Tawnypelt and Feathertail actually help her get out.

    Live-Action TV 
  • One death on 1000 Ways to Die had a guy on the run from the police getting stuck in a pipe, which ended up being his downfall when rats chewed through his eye and out the back of his head. Another was a woman dying after trying and failing to enter a house through a chimney.
  • Adam-12 had a guy who got stuck in a sewer drain while going after his wallet.
  • There's an episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark? that's about the ghost of a prisoner who got stuck while trying to break out of prison. He never made it out and died while he was still stuck. Near the end of the episode, the two boy protagonists discover the body in the very spot where it happened, then later met the ghost again who explained it to them.
  • Blake's 7.
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In "Lessons", Buffy is telling Dawn how dangerous the vampire burrowing out of his grave is, when the vampire interrupts to ask for their help as his foot is caught on a root.
  • Norm got stuck trying to go through a window on an episode of Cheers. Everyone compared him to Winnie the Pooh. In another episode, Diane crawls into a duct to try and fix the heating but gets stuck under the bar floor. This was an elaborate attempt to hide Shelley Long's pregnancy.
  • Cory in the House: In the episode "Through the Roof", Cory and Newt get into an argument while they are trying to write a song. They later end up getting stuck through the ceiling (or floor as Newt puts it).
  • Dad's Army. In "A Man of Action", Private Pike gets his head stuck in some gate railings. The gate is removed with Pike still in it so he can be brought back to the hall, which leads to a Running Gag of people thinking Pike is undergoing Stock Punishment due to Captain Mainwaring having just declared martial law and acting like a petty dictator.
  • In the episode of Designing Women "Julia Gets Her Head Stuck In A Fence"... well...
  • Emergency! had an episode where a thief got stuck in the ventilator shaft he was crawling through, and the guys from Station 51 were called in to get him out.
    • Another episode had a woman stuck in a dog door.
  • In one episode of Evening Shade, Wood gets stuck in his bathroom window after trying to break into his own house. This results in having them cut the wall down (mentioned only).
  • At the end of an episode of Flipper, Flipper gets stuck. This, of course, results in a cliffhanger.
  • Friends: In a flashback to Thanksgiving 1992 we learn that Joey got Monica's uncooked turkey stuck on his head. He'd willingly put it on to scare Chandler but then couldn't remove it by himself. Monica and Phoebe attempt to pull it off but Joey slips out of their grasp with it still on.
    • During the final season's Thanksgiving episode Joey gets his head stuck in the gap between Monica's front door and the doorframe. Drizzling turkey grease on him doesn't work (although he enjoys trying to lick it up) so the gang are forced to push on the door until the chain breaks and sets him free.
  • The Full House episode "Misadventures in Babysitting" involved DJ and Kimmy babysitting a neighbor's hyperactive young son Brian, who manages to get his head stuck in a banister. DJ tries to avoid getting help from Danny, so they attempt to do so themselves, including lathering Brian with butter.
  • In the Good Luck Charlie episode, "Something's Fishy", Teddy gets a job at Otto's Grotto to pay the phone bill and get her phone back from Bob. At one point, a kid steals her car keys, and she chases him into the tubes, where her octopus costume gets her stuck. When Bob tries to get her out later in the episode, he also gets stuck. The tubes later collapse from their combined weight.
  • Happened to Alan's friend on an episode of The Journey of Allen Strange.
  • One episode of Magic Mountain has Lion getting his head stuck in a tree with the others struggling to free him.
  • In Maybe It's Me's The Hair Episode, Molly gets stuck in the doggy door of her house, which a thought bubble declares as a 'bad way to show off your new Gap hip-huggers', and her brother Grant tells her she ought to lose some weight.
  • Mr. Bean: After the title character loses his watch while stuffing a Christmas turkey and tries looking for it, he's ultimately stuck answering the door for his dinner date with his entire head wedged inside the bird.
  • Mystery Science Theater 3000:
    • Servo once trapped Crow in a giant insect killing jar.
      Servo: Watch this. [to Crow] Booga booga booga!
      [Crow screams, rattling the jar]
      Crow: Attica! Attica! Attica!
    • Crow also once got himself caught in a double jock lock. Subverted in that Crow didn't want any help trying to get out of it.
      Crow: This is gonna come up again.
  • In an episode of Ocean Girl, Neri tries to use a shell to cut through an underwater net. In the process, however, her leg gets stuck and she accidentally drops the shell - leaving her trapped. Thankfully, she is saved by Jason - a boy she met earlier - who cuts her free.
  • Odd Squad: In "The One That Got Away", Otto manages to get himself stuck in between two of the stools at Ms. O's juice bar with his legs caught in one of the stool's rings. Later on, he gets stuck in her The Scream-styled painting in the same pose as the man depicted in the original painting.
    • In "Haunt Squad", Olympia and Otis come across Ohlm with his head stuck in the middle of a table in a subversion of Losing Your Head. According to him, he crawled underneath it to grab a coin he had dropped, then got the ever-so-bright idea of punching a small hole in the table to crawl out of. Naturally, he didn't get any farther than his head, and he became stuck for three hours. Olympia asks him why he didn't just crawl out of the table the same way he crawled in, which makes him regret her and Otis not being there three hours ago. However, the two agents don't free him, as they become spooked by the supposed ghost in Headquarters (holding up Ms. O's juice box sculptures) and beat a hasty retreat.
  • In the Pushing Daisies episode, "The Fun in Funeral", Ned, Chuck, and Emerson attempt to sneak into the basement of the Schatz Brothers' Funeral Home through the window. Ned gets in no problem, but Emerson, due to his... largeness, gets stuck in the window. As a result, Chuck taunts him and compares him to Winnie-the-Pooh, and even says to him, "Remember, mind over matter makes Pooh unfatter."
    Emerson: I may be stuck, but I can still reach my gun.
  • In one of the Quibi episodes of Reno 911!, Big Mike called the deputies over to his place. Turns out Dangle had come over for a little action earlier, and he got "Winnie-The-Poohed" in a glory hole. This was apparently the second time this has happened to him.
  • In an episode of Roseanne, Roseanne gets stuck in a vent in a kitchen at a restaurant.
  • On an episode of The Mr. Bill Show, Mr. Bill gets stuck between prison bars as Mr. Hands tries to break him out of prison. Mr. Hands then tries to blow the bars up by using dynamite, but Mr. Bill still remains stuck in the bars despite not being in the cell anymore.
  • The main plot of Stick Stickly's TV special Stuck revolves around Stick having a skate stuck on his foot and the resulting angst.
  • The Wiggles: In the episode, “Safety”, Dorothy the Dinosaur tries to reach for roses on a high bush. She stands on the top step of a ladder, but she winds up getting stuck on the bush as her ladder falls over. Does anyone come to help her? Well, not yet. Various other sketches and songs play throughout the episode, but it periodically cuts back to Dorothy crying for help. It’s not until the end when the Wiggles hear her crying and run to her rescue. Wags, Henry and Captain Feathersword join them.
  • On Seven Worlds, One Planet, a European hamster gets its head stuck in a jar, having overfilled its cheek pouches while foraging for candle wax in a Vienna cemetery.
  • This topic was used for Ryan Stiles' plumber hoedown verse in the 12th season of Whose Line Is It Anyway?, but he has to make two attempts at it from laughing.
    Ryan: I can see your bathroom, how it's really taken a toll
    I can see your big, fat ass is stuck in that bowl
    I'll spread your ass with butter, and pop you like a cork
    And (goes into an utter meltdown)
    Wayne: I wanna see where this is going!

    Music 

    Music Videos 
  • At the beginning of the music video to Weird Al Yankovic's "Eat It", it shows two guys coming out of a sewer. The second guy gets stuck.

    Puppet Shows 
  • In the early '90s sitcom Dinosaurs, Earl is known for frequently getting stuck in the front door of his own house.
    Earl: I'm home! I'm hungry! I'm stuck in the door again!
  • In the Fraggle Rock episode, "A Friend In Need", Sprocket chases Gobo into the Fraggle hole and winds up getting stuck. Gobo spends the rest of the episode doing all he can to help him.
  • The Muppets:
    • In The Great Muppet Caper, Gonzo gets his nose stuck in an elevator door, but after Fozzie pulls him free, he decides to put his nose back into it because he thought it was fun.
    • At the end of The Muppets at Walt Disney World, after everyone returns from their Walt Disney World vacation, they notice that Miss Piggy is missing. One of the Muppets says the last time he saw her was in front of the Chinese Theater signing autographs. Cut to Miss Piggy in front of the Chinese Theater standing with her hoofs in the now dry cement. She continuously cries for help as the credits roll.
    • In The Muppet Christmas Carol, Rizzo winds up falling down a chimney and getting stuck in it because he was overwhelmed by the smell of the goose that was arising from it.
      Gonzo: I knew you weren't suited for literature!
  • In an episode of Dumbo's Circus, Dumbo gets stuck in marshmallow sauce.
  • Under the Umbrella Tree:
    • The three puppets perform a play where they play as dinosaurs. At one point in the play, Iggy gets stuck in a bush, and Jacob and Gloria are forced to help him.
    • In another episode, Holly gets her head stuck in Gloria's burrow.
  • Sesame Street:
    • There's an episode where everyone plans to have a big party in Hooper's Store. Snuffy gets stuck in the door trying to get in, so everyone had to work together and push him back out.
    • Snuffy got stuck again twice in "Big Bird's Story Time."
    • In the movie The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland, Big Bird gets stuck in Oscar's trash can trying to get into Grouch Land, but only until Gordon gives him a good push.

    Theatre 
  • In Pokémon Live!, Jessie and James fall into their own pit trap and Meowth has to fetch a rope to rescue them.
  • Disney's Believe has Dr. Greenaway stuck up a tree and unable to get down, even after Peter Pan tries to teach him how to fly. It takes thinking of his daughter, Sophia, for him to get it right.

    Video Games 
  • Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story: After fighting Midbus, Bowser is treated to a "victory feast" that results in him being stuck in the floor due to overindulging.
  • Chrono Trigger: One particularly memorable scene involves Lucca travelling back in time to a horrifying and tragic incident from her childhood in which her mother, Lara, got her dress caught in a machine and Lucca couldn't turn it off. Thankfully, the player character can prevent this from happening by inputting Lara's name into the machine, but entering the password wrong (or just doing nothing) will result in Lara screaming as her legs are crushed and she is relegated to a wheelchair for the rest of her life.
  • Eastshade: One of the first mini-quests is to help a bumbling resident of Lyndow get his head unstuck from a large jar.
  • Elden Ring: In Limgrave, you'll hear a voice cry out for help, and the guy who's calling for help is a giant walking jar named Iron Fist Alexander who's lodged himself in a hole. He asks you to just smack him hard enough to pop him out of the hole, and thanks you freeing him, and continues on his journey. He later gets stuck in another hole again in Liurnia, but this time you need to oil him up to get him unstuck.
  • Eye of the Beholder 2: The Temple of Darkmoon: There is a round hole in the ceiling allowing to rise up to the next level thanks to a "whirlwind" button. When found, a beholder happens to be stuck inside, with just its mouth, central eye and a few eyestalks peeking through. It asks the adventurers for their help to be unstuck — one of the rare times a beholder deign speaking to the party rather than attacking on sight.
  • Final Fantasy VII has 2 instances. The first is when Jessie's foot gets stuck during the escape of the Mako Reactor in the game's beginning. Another occurs in Disc 2 when Cid's leg becomes pinned under a broken oxygen tank after it exploded.
  • Metal Gear Solid: Near the end, Snake and Meryl/Otacon become trapped in their jeep after it crashes into Liquid's jeep. And Liquid survived the crash. Fortunately for them, he then promptly drops dead from a FOXDIE-induced heart attack.
  • In Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, one or two Rabbids can be found stuck upside-down in background objects, such as in a chimney in Spooky Trails. Beep-O will make some quip about the situation when interacted with, such as how it comes from the Rabbids' pear-shaped physiques.
  • Pikmin: In the short "Treasure in a Bottle", a red Pikmin manages to accidentally get itself trapped in a bottle, and it calls for help from two other Pikmin, who luckily just happen to be walking by, to get it back out.
  • In Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver, Sayo the Kimono Girl gets stuck while trekking through the Ice Path, due to her sandals getting trapped in the ice, and needs your help to get her out.
  • In The Simpsons: Virtual Bart, the water slide level has Homer get stuck in the tubes of the first two wrong paths Bart takes. If Bart goes down the wrong path a third time, Homer is somehow dislodged, and Bart is either sent back to the beginning of the level or loses a life.
  • Sonic Unleashed: This happens to Sonic twice when he crashes face-first into the ground, once in his Werehog form, another in his usual form. There are also a couple of shorts that involve Chip getting stuck in a vase and coconut, respectively.
  • In World of Illusion, there are a few instances in the game where Donald can get stuck and Mickey has to pull him through. This is used as a chokepoint between level branches in some parts of the game. Mickey going alone can simply pass through to the next stage, Donald alone can't go through at all and has to find another way around, and Mickey pulling Donald through often triggers something that changes the stage on the other side.
  • The beginning of Spyro: Year of the Dragon has two instances. The first is when one of the adult dragons tries to go after Bianca who has just stolen the dragon eggs, only to get his head stuck in a hole. The second one occurs when Hunter tries to jump down the hole to the Forgotten Realms. Thankfully, one of the older dragons manages to force him down the hole.
  • In the Undertale 5th Anniversary Alarm Clock, Asgore mentions getting stuck in a chimney while dressed as Santa Claus. He also describes someone drawing a face on his backside.
    • Undyne also mentions Asgore getting his legs stuck in an ice hole, needing her to pull him out.
  • In Deltarune, one side area has a window labelled with the word "Stupid" next to the entrance. Once you're done exploring the room and head back, you'll find a Tasque has managed to get its head stuck inside it.
  • In the GameCube and PS2 version of Donald Duck: Goin' Qu@ckers, the boss battle against Magica De Spell requires you to defeat her skeleton mooks and have their skulls bounce into her. The last hit causes a skull to get stuck on her head, then she falls over on her Flying Broomstick and is carried off hanging upside-down.
  • One of the fails in The Henry Stickmin Collection: Breaking the Bank has Henry attempt to use a Teleporter to warp himself inside the titular vault. It instead teleports him directly into the bank's wall, leaving him rather inconveniently trapped.
  • Zniw Adventure: The bridge at Rivenn-na gets blocked by a blue Euoplocephalus stuck in it. When Zniw tries to climb over him, he turns out to be ticklish and nearly knocks her off into the river, so she has to find another way to get to the other side and pull him out from there.

    Web Animation 
  • Battle for Dream Island: The short "Claustrophobe's Nightmare" revolves around Book, Donut and Match getting trapped inside a broken claw machine while Cloudy and Purple Face try and fail to break them out.
  • Etra chan saw it!:
    • Azami tried to break into a house by getting through a window but she was so fat she couldn't get in completely and ended up needing the police to get her out.
    • Akane gets stuck in the garden fence when trying to steal Tokusa and Tsutsuji's vegetables.
  • Happy Tree Friends: In "Hear Today, Gone Tomorrow", Russell crashes and gets stuck underneath his truck. The only one around to help is Lumpy, who lost his hearing earlier in the episode and thus can't hear Russell's cries for help. The truck eventually explodes before he can be rescued.
  • Homestar Runner
  • In an early episode of Puffin Forest, during an adventure one member of the party falls into a pit and the other members of the party leave him there assuming he was dead, even though he can clearly be heard calling for help. He later shows up near the end of the video enraged at the party because the hole was only 10 feet deep and was stuck there for three days and attacked by rats.
  • Revenge Films: In this story, the OP found her sister's fiancé cheating on her with another woman and took pictures of the scene. However, none of them could get out to stop her as the shock and panic triggered the lover's vaginismus and the lovebirds had to be rushed to the hospital.

    Webcomics 
  • Anon's Pie Adventure: Marble Pie, here depicted as having a rather curvaceous rump (inherited, according to her mother Cloudy Quartz, from her grandmother), has so far gotten stuck twice due to it. The first time, her sister Pinkie Pie pulls her halfway through the tiny window in the farmhouse's front door, and needs to be pulled back out by her other sister, Limestone Pie. The second time, when Marble and Cloudy are exploring the underground caverns, the former gets wedged in a narrow gap, necessitating Cloudy to tug her out. According to Cloudy, tight squeezes were common for Marble's grandmother as well.
  • Boy and Dog: Rowan once gets stuck under his crib.
  • Misfile: Happens to Emily. Hilarity Ensues when she asks Ash to give her a push.
  • VG Cats: One issue shows Leo in the Hundred Acre Woods portion of Kingdom Hearts. He sees that Winnie the Pooh is stuck in a tree due to eating too much honey, and Piglet begs Leo for help. Leo ponders how Pooh is able to eat honey and how he fits into evolution being that he's stuffed with fluff. He agrees to help Pooh, but only so he could dissect him!
    Leo: So it was fluff AND blood! Fun times!
  • In Pebble and Wren, Wren pretends the stool is an alien trying to eat her, but then actually gets stuck.

    Web Original 
  • Happens a lot in Ted The Caver as it takes place in, well, caves.

    Web Videos 
  • Seen in CollegeHumor's ad for the "Conversational Ripcord", a ripcord you pull to get out of any awkward conversation pits. At the end, Katie pulls her ripcord to get out of an awkward conversation where she said some upsetting things about Sam with him present, and gets stuck in a wall. As she groans and asks Trapp for help, Trapp winces and pulls his own ripcord.
  • At the end of Caddicarus's review of Ape Escape, he sent a love letter to the creators of the game, but gets his hand stuck in the post box in the process. In the next episode, it's revealed that a postman cut his arm off with "the emergency circular saw that every postman carries for situations such as this", and the Ape Escape team enclosed a pill to regrow his hand....but now he has to play The Tweenies Game Time.
  • In Rat Movie 2, the Giant Rat That Makes All Of The Rules ends up stuck while climbing out of the toilet, prompting one of the rats to flush him back down. 30 seconds later, the Giant Rat tries to flush the birthday party's clown down the toilet, to no avail.
    Giant Rat: We got a problem. The fat guy doesn't fit down the toilet.
  • Suburban Knights: Covered slides were not designed for the husky gentlemen!
  • In the SuperMarioLogan episode called “Bowser Jr Needs Help” Bowser Jr pretends to get his head stuck between the bars of his bunkbed to avoid going to school. But this turns out to be a horrible idea because his head got stuck for real. Later in the video, Joseph comes to Jr’s house to see why he wasn’t at school. After finding out Jr was stuck, Joseph becomes stupid, puts his head in the bunkbed bars and he gets stuck as well. Cody and Brooklyn Guy were able to get Jr out of the bars but Joseph dies due to Cody pulling him so hard that his head came off. At the end of the video, Chef Pee Pee tells Junior to put his head in the bunkbed and he gets stuck again. He screams for help while Chef Pee Pee puts on headphones and falls asleep. And that’s where the video ends.

    Western Animation 
  • 2 Stupid Dogs: In "Home is Where Your Head Is", the big dog gets his head stuck in a hole in a fence. The little dog thinks he lost his head, and they both wind up missing each other. The little dog even fails to realize the big dog is able to get his head out by himself.
  • 101 Dalmatian Street: In "Boom Night", Dolly gets stuck in a window on account of her wearing an outfit made entirely out of tennis balls. She tricks all her brothers and sisters into pushing her out by saying she has balls for them to play fetch with.
  • 101 Dalmatians: The Series: Rolly gets stuck several times, but most of the time, he manages to get himself unstuck by himself. Only a few times did he require help, most notably in the episodes "You Slipped a Disk", "Southern Fried Cruella" and "Roll Out the Pork Barrel".
  • Aaahh!!! Real Monsters:
    • In "Krumm Gets Ahead", Krumm gets a prosthetic head to hold his eyes so he won't lose them and he can have better use of his hands. The new head gets him stuck in a toilet and compromises the scare that he, Ickis, and Oblina were assigned to.
    • In "Walk Like A Man", Ickis gets stuck in a toilet as a result of performing a scare from inside it.
  • Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog:
    • "Musta Been a Beautiful Baby": Tails becomes bloated after eating too much instant food, and gets stuck in a doorway as he and Sonic try to escape from Scratch and Grounder.
    • "Full-Tilt Tails": Tails He gets his foot stuck on a railroad track. Sonic saves him by building an alternative track for the oncoming train to run on.
    • "So Long, Sucker!": Sonic gets his foot stuck in between two rocks making him an open target for Scratch. Tails eventually manages to get him out of there with Goopster distracting Scratch.
  • Animaniacs (1993): In the The Goodfeathers short, "Ta Da Dump, Ta Da Dump, Ta Da Dump Dump Dump", Pesto gets himself stuck in a plastic six-pack holder for sodas.note  Pesto winds up making the situation worse later on by getting Bobby and Squit stuck in it too after he gets into one of his fights with Squit.
  • Alvin and the Chipmunks: Clyde Crashcup gets stuck in a chimney once in an episode where he's doing a lecture on "Do It Yourself". After Leonardo frees him, he begins a lecture on help.
  • Beavis and Butt-Head: In "The Pipe of Doom", Butt-head gets stuck in a pipe while the two are exploring a construction site, and Beavis can't get him out. A night patrolman finds them, and calls the news, the police and firefighters to rescue him. After everyone else has left, Beavis crawls into the same pipe. He even says "Help, I'm stuck!" exactly.
  • The Berenstain Bears: In one episode, the Bear Scouts sneak into the window of a museum to help Professor Actual Factual find a dinosaur bone. Papa gets stuck in the window tagging along for the case and the scouts have to pull him free.
  • Big City Greens: In "Fast Foodie", Cricket gets stuck in a slide as a result of getting fat from eating too much fast food from Burger Clown. When Bill tries to get him out by climbing into the other end, he gets stuck as well.
  • Bob's Burgers:
    • "Crawl Space": Bob, fixing a roof leak, fakes getting stuck in the spaces between the walls to avoid being around his visiting in-laws. When his wife finds out about his deceit she's livid, and when he realizes he really is stuck she doesn't help him.
    • "V For Valentine-Detta": At one point the eccentric limo driver Nat tries to crawl through the window separating the driver's seat from the passenger side. She predictably gets stuck, and needs help from Tina, Louise, and Linda in getting through the rest of the way.
  • Bluey:
    • Bingo: Bingo gets her foot stuck in the railing while playing a railings game, needing Chilli to turn her foot to free it.
    • Ragdoll: Bandit gets stuck at the bottom of the stairs with Bluey and Bingo briefly unable to budge him, but he's only stuck due to being in ragdoll mode and unable to move his own body (albeit by his own choice).
  • Budgie the Little Helicopter: Pippa gets stuck in a snow drift when delivering fuel to Budgie.
  • Care Bears:
    • The Care Bears (1980s) episode "Care Bear Town Parade": Cheer Bear gets stuck trying to escape through a window of a flying car that she and some other Care Bears are trapped in. Champ Bear tries to push her through.
    • Care Bears in the Land Without Feelings: While on their way to Coldheart's Castle, several Care Bears fall into the water, which Coldheart freezes, with one of them shouting that they're stuck but telling the rest to continue on. Later, when the remaining two try to float over sticky tar by balloon, Coldheart blows it out and Friend Bear fall, saying this line as she struggles to get out.
  • A Chucklewood Easter: Buttons gets stuck entering the Easter Bunny’s burrow, so Rusty had to give him a little push.
  • C.O.P.S. (Animated Series): One episode has the crooks using a submarine, and Fat Bastard Big Boss gets stuck every time he tries to get in or out of it.
  • Corn & Peg:
    • "Horse Play": Slater gets stuck in a log.
    • "A Bad Case of the Neigh-Choos": Captain Thunderhoof gets stuck in ice caused by an avalanche. Corn and Peg get her out by melting the ice by giving her a "horse hug".
  • Cow and Chicken:
    • "Black Sheep": Cow gets stuck in a mailbox, but nobody pays attention to her. She eventually gets out herself as Super Cow.
    • "Cow and Chicken Reclining": Cow and Chicken both get stuck in an old recliner that their dad got rid of. They remain stuck in it for the entire episode since everyone fails to realize that they need help and only view them as a piece of art.
    • "Free Inside!": The Red Guy gets stuck to a lamppost by a wad of gum. Everybody walks past him without noticing despite him screaming for help, and he is later shown an old man still stuck to the post.
    • "Bad Chicken": The Red Guy takes on the role of the Copy Fairy and ends up getting his eye stuck to a Copy Fairy strip.
  • Disenchantment: In the episode "The Pitter Patter of Little Feet", while traversing a progressively narrowing hallway in the castle, Bean ends up stuck in a small door leading outside and overlooking the cliffs. The next episode begins with her still stuck, and Elfo and Luci attempt to free her, ending up with the floor collapsing beneath them.
  • Dragon Tales: One episode is about Ord accidentally getting stuck in a Knucker Hole after eating too many Dragonberries. Max then tells him a story about a bear who got stuck in a hole because he ate too much honey before finally pulling him out of the Knucker Hole. Obviously, this is a Shout-Out to Winnie the Pooh.
  • Eckhart: In "Nose of the Beholder", Mavis and Sweeney crawl into a soda pop bottle left behind at a picnic. Mavis ends up drinking too much, and is unable to fit back out of the bottle.
  • Ed, Edd n Eddy:
    • "Knock Knock, Who's Ed?": While the Eds are sneaking through a vent, Ed had to push Edd and Eddy because they got stuck. Strangely, Ed didn't consider he's larger than the other two.
    • "A Glass of Warm Ed": Ed becomes so bloated from his sleepwalking/sleep-eating that when Eddy and Double D finally catch him and pull him in through his bedroom window, he's too fat to fit through and remains wedged there for the remainder of the episode.
    • Jonny often gets his large head stuck as a result of climbing trees. In a flashback sequence in "Stuck in Ed", he's also shown with his head stuck in a creek, a trash can in the junkyard, and a manhole.
  • Family Guy: In "Saturated Fat Guy", Peter starts a junk-food themed food truck in response to Lois forcing him to eat healthier. The truck is successful, but Peter takes things too far by getting fatter and fatter off his own creations. Eventually, he gets stuck in the truck door as a result and has to be physically lifted out of the torn-off roof by a crane. In the same episode, Peter hopes that he doesn't end up like Winnie the Pooh, and a Cutaway Gag is shown where Pooh is stuck in Rabbit's front door and asks Rabbit to push him out with his shoulder instead of his fist.
  • In Garfield On The Town Specials, Garfield follows his mom through a hole in a brick wall, but gets stuck.
  • Goof Troop: One episode has PJ get stuck in a washing machine.
    • Pete, being both Fat and Proud and the show's regular Butt-Monkey, also came in for this trope. In "To Catch A Goof", he gets stuck in the door while walking into his bedroom, binging on meal replacement bars. In "Gymnauseam", he gets a double dose — the opening sees him stuck so tightly in his favorite recliner that Goofy's attempt to remove him via tow rope pulls him through the front door with the chair still attached. Then, once arriving at the ski lodge, he briefly gets stuck while exiting his own RV.
  • Gumby: In "Stuck on Books", Gumby tries to talk his dog, Nopey, into going through books like him, but Nopey refuses fearing he might get stuck. On one book, Pokey pushes Nopey through it, but he winds up getting stuck. Gumby and Pokey try to push him through and pull him out but have no luck. Eventually, Gumby goes into the book to see what's up. It turned out Nopey had his mouth hooked onto a tree branch.
  • Hilda:
    • "The Sparrow Scouts": Hilda's new friend Frida gets wedged in a rabbit hole down in the vittra caverns while trying to get her badge sash back.
    • "The Troll Rock": Hilda gets stuck in a school air vent trying to go after a baby troll, with her friend David lampshading how much easier it looks in films.
  • Johnny Bravo: One episode ends with Johnny getting his head stuck in a pickle jar, and it apparently isn't the first time.
  • Josie and the Pussycats: In one episode, Melody gets her head stuck in a funnel.
  • Kipper:
    • In one episode, Tiger gets stuck under a tree root. He continuously cries for help but nobody comes. Eventually, Kipper arrives and pulls him free.
    • In another episode, Pig gets stuck in the entrance of an igloo, and needs Kipper and Tiger to get him free.
  • Kissyfur: In "Bear Roots", Kissyfur is tricked into climbing into a log by Lenny the warthog, only to get stuck at the other end. Everyone runs away when they're alerted to the alligators Floyd and Jolene arriving, whereupon they corner him and pull him free.
  • Les Sisters: In "Quelle Soiree", Wendy tries getting into her friend's house via the bathroom window in order to get into a Wild Teen Party she wasn't invited to, but her body gets stuck halfway through the window, leaving her unable to get into the house or climb back outside the window. Fortunately, Marine happens to be attending the party, so Wendy is able to call her for help and with a little effort, Marine manages to pull Wendy into the house.
  • The Little Mermaid (1992):
    • "Message in a Bottle": Ariel, Flounder, and Sebastian end up under a giant clamshell while trying to escape from Simon the sea dragon. Flounder and Sebastian sneak away from under it, but Ariel is unable to fit through and follow them, forcing her to retreat back beneath it.
    • "Whale of a Tale": While escaping from a pair of sharks, Ariel, Flounder, and Sebastian swim through a hole in a glass-like coral wall. Ariel very briefly gets wedged by her hips in the hole, getting unstuck just before the sharks reach her.
  • Martha Speaks:
    • "Martha Plays a Part": Martha gets stuck in a window while trying to get to Helen's school play.
    • "Martha Fails the Course": Due to attempting an obstacle course built for a smaller dog, Martha ends up stuck in a hoop, and then in a tunnel.
    • "The Puppy Tooth Fairy": While Martha takes on the role of the Puppy Tooth Fairy, she gets stuck in a doggy door at least twice due to her fairy costume giving her extra width. Fortunately, Skits was there to give her a paw.
    • "Too Much Martha": Martha gets stuck in the doggie door due to the fact that she had gotten much chubbier due to overeating.
  • Mickey Mouse (2013): In "No Reservations", in one of Minnie, Daisy and Clarabelle's attempts to sneak into a restaurant, they try to get inside through an open window on the roof. Clarabelle jumps in butt first, but she gets stuck. As Minnie and Daisy try to pull her free, she squirts milk out of her udder into the restaurant. The guests inside mistake this for the fire extinguishers and all evacuate thinking the place was on fire.
  • Mr. Bogus:
    • "Et Tu, Brattus?": Happens to Mole in the first act while trying to follow Ratty into the garage of the bully.
    • "Computer Intruder": Happens to one of the Meteor Goons in the third act after getting stuck in the hard drive of Tommy's computer.
  • Muppet Babies (1984):
    • "Masquerading Muppets": Skeeter gets a wig stuck on her head and Miss Piggy, Kermit, Fozzie and Scooter have to pull it off.
    • In another episode, Gonzo imagines himself rescuing Camilla who gets stuck on a railroad track by acting like a matador and treating the oncoming train as a charging bull.
  • My Little Pony:
    • My Little Pony 'n Friends: In "The End of Flutter Valley, Part 9", when Queen Bumble tries to head down the hole to pursue the main characters, her... generous... girth causes her to get stuck halfway in and requires her minions to pull her back out.
    • My Little Pony Tales:
      • "Stand by Me": Teddy gets his hooves stuck in a wastebasket and later falls into a lost and found box, requiring Sweetheart to pull him out both times.
      • "Blue Ribbon Blues": Teddy's cousin Corny becomes trapped underneath a tree branch in a rushing river. Teddy saves him after hearing his cries for help.
    • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
      • "May the Best Pet Win!": Rainbow Dash winds up getting stuck because a boulder landed on her wing.
      • "Spike at Your Service": Applejack gets her hoof stuck in a pile of rocks as she and Spike are escaping from a Timberwolf.
      • "Maud Pie": Pinkie Pie gets her hoof stuck in the rock slide she built. Of course, this happens just as it starts to collapse and the giant boulder on top starts descending down at Pinkie.
      • "Amending Fences": In a flashback, Lemon Hearts somehow manages to get her head stuck inside an Erlenmeyer flask.
      • "To Where and Back Again": A changeling tries to fool Discord into thinking that she's Fluttershy who is stuck due to a heavy rock crushing her tail.
      • "Non-Compete Clause": Applejack and Rainbow Dash end up wedged side-by-side between two trees after trying to go through at the same time, necessitating Yona the yak to give them a headbutt to pop them loose.
  • PB&J Otter: In "Lost and Found", Ernest gets stuck in a water slide and remains there throughout most of the rest of the episode. He eventually gets dislodged by some clowns, and in the end, he decides that next time he goes to the carnival, he should either lose some weight or stay off the water slide.
  • Peppa Pig: One episode has Daddy Pig attempt to go down a slide with George, only to end up stuck halfway down. Peppa and her friends push him free by sliding down after him.
  • Pinky and the Brain: In "The Megalomaniacal Adventures of Brainie the Poo", Brain gets his head stuck in a rabbit hole, spoofing a similar scene in Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree. When Brain mockingly mimics Pinky saying "Narf", his head shrinks, so he continues saying Pinky's catchphrases to shrink his head so Pinky can pull him out.
  • Poddington Peas: In "Dump-Pea's Diet", the already-rotund Dump-Pea gets so fat after eating many tea cakes at Tea-Pea's shop (and which he has no money to pay for) that he can't fit through the door, even with Tea-Pea and Hap-Pea pushing. He stays the night cleaning dishes, and barely manages to squeeze through the door by the next day, resolving to eat outside from now on.
  • Pound Puppies
    • Pound Puppies (1980s): In one episode, Cooler's no-named friend gets stuck during their escape. Cooler of course, helps him despite the fact that he told him not to worry about him.
    • Pound Puppies (2010)
      • "The Yipper Caper": Strudel tries to sabotage the new kibble machine, but after she does, she gets stuck inside it. The squirrels inside manage to push her out, though.
      • "My Fair Rebound": Lucky goes into a narrow spot to talk to Rebound. He didn't actually get stuck, but he told Cookie to pull on his tail just in case he did.
      • "The Watchdogs": The pup of the episode is first introduced with his paw stuck in a grate.
  • The Powerpuff Girls (1998):
    • "Buttercrush": Grubber of the Gang Green Gang calls up Blossom and Bubbles to get them to think Buttercup is stuck (doing a poor impression of her) in order to lure them into a trap.
    • "Something's a Ms.": Bubbles gets stuck when Sedusa plasters her onto a window with her hair gel.
    • "Paste Makes Waste" is prone to this trope after Elmer Sglue transforms into the Paste Monster.
  • Ready Jet Go!: A Running Gag in "Jet's Time Machine" involves Carrot repeatedly getting a vase stuck on his head. At one point, Sean ends up with the vase on his head, even though his head is too big to fit inside it.
  • Recess: In "The Terrifying Tales of Recess", Mikey gets stuck when trying to get out of a hole dug up by the diggers.
  • Rocky and Bullwinkle:
    • This jappens to Bullwinkle a couple times. Usually, it was from his antlers being too wide or getting jammed through a wall or door. Once, he got stuck upside-down and backside-first in a small window of a house in the 'Metal-Munching Mice' story arc.
    • Fractured Fairy Tales: In the show's version of the Golden Goose story, when someone touches the Golden Goose with his bare hands he gets stuck to it, and whoever touches him gets his hands stuck to him. This results in a large chain of people with their hands stuck to each other's bodies.
  • Rugrats:
    • Happens quite a few times in the series, mostly with Angelica. The most notable episode is the flashback episode to when the babies first met.
    • An episode was written early in the show's production, entitled "Chuckie Gets Trapped," involving Chuckie getting his head caught in a banister. It was eventually never produced, as co-creator Arlene Klasky felt it presented a danger issue.
  • Scooby-Doo:
    • Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!:
    • The New Scooby-Doo Movies: In "Scooby-Doo Meets Dick Van Dyke", Scooby winds up landing in an ice cream cart and eats so much ice cream that he gets stuck in the cart. After they get him out, Velma remarks that "If Scooby landed in a pizza cart, we'd never get him out!"
    • The Scooby-Doo Show: In "Creepy Tangle in the Bermuda Triangle", Scooby gets stuck in a ventilator, and needs Shaggy to push him through.
    • The Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo Show: In a short, Shaggy gets stuck in his sleeping bag while being held captive in an alien spaceship.
      Shaggy: Oh, brother! What a time to get stuck in a sleeping bag!
    • What's New, Scooby-Doo?: In "Homeward Hound", Scooby helps a litter of dognapped puppies escape through an air vent but gets stuck trying to fit through it himself, eventually squeezing through with difficulty.
  • Sheep in the Big City:
    • In a semi-Christmas special, Sheep gets stuck under an anvil.
    • In another episode, Sheep gets himself stuck in an automatic door twice.
  • The Simpsons:
    • "Brush With Greatness": Homer gets stuck in a tube of the H2Whoa! water slide. Mt. Splashmore's staff try to dislodge him with some kids, but to no avail. Eventually, the tube Homer is in has to be unscrewed and lifted out by a crane, prompting Homer to go on a diet.
    • "The Seemingly Never-Ending Story": The Simpson family goes on a nature hike through a cave. They all fall through a hole and slide down to an undiscovered part of the cave. Homer gets stuck. While Marge takes Bart and Maggie to see if they can find help, Lisa decides to stay with Homer and tell him some stories.
  • Skunk Fu!:
    • "The Art of Getting Stuck": Rabbit uses a coconut with a face drawn on to make the head for his new training dummy based on Baboon's ninja monkey mooks. When Rabbit is away, Skunk uses the coconut as a mask and messes around with it before quickly finding that it's stuck on his head; not helping is when his stumbling around Rabbit's hovel causes him to spill an inkpot on his chest, covering the white part of his fur, and to get the fur on his tail sheared off when it's pulled through a wringer, causing a band of real ninja monkeys to abduct him when they mistake him for one of their own. He only gets it off at the end when Rabbit attacks him and splits the coconut in half.
    • "The Art of Sneaking": Skunk briefly gets half of his body stuck trying to use himself as a key to unlock a door.
  • SpongeBob SquarePants:
    • SpongeBob once got stuck in a wringer in an episode of the same name.
    • "Patrick-Man!": Patrick briefly gets stuck in the service window at the Krusty Krab.
  • Super Mario Bros.:
    • The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3: In "Do the Koopa", after the Marios pull the crank out of the Doom Dancer Music Box, Koopa puts his claw in the crank and it gets stuck. Cheatsy, Big Mouth and Bully pry it off, causing it to fall off the Doomship and break when it lands on top of a Goomba.
    • Super Mario World (1991):
      • "Fire Sale": Kootie Pie Koopa becomes stuck in a block of ice on her throne in Ice Palace. She screams at her Koopa Troopa minion to come to her aid but he refuses.
      • "The Night Before Cave Christmas": Mario tries to sneak into Neon Castle but gets stuck in between the window bars. Yoshi tries to shove him through and finally does when he sees a Boo Buddy.
      • "Rock TV": King Koopa becomes crushed by the remnants of his giant television after Yoshi eats the load-bearing blocks. Yoshi then agrees to help him but begins eating the rest of the blocks slowly.
  • The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries: One episode has a really large man get stuck in a door frame and remain there for the entire episode. Everyone else in the office cannot use the door since it is completely blocked by the man's body.
  • Theodore Tugboat:
    • Digby the Cable Ship is frequently getting stuck somewhere.
    • "Emily Goes Overboard": Emily gets stuck between two rocks. As she tries to get herself out, she says, "Things like this only happen to Digby!". When Digby finds her, he is surprised when he, for once, is not the one stuck somewhere.
  • Thomas & Friends, in general, is very fond of this type of story:
  • Tiny Toon Adventures: In an episode that parodies the classic Daffy Duck cartoon, "The Great Piggybank Robbery", Plucky dreams that he is a Dick Tracy knock-off in a showdown with various different villains. Plucky winds up getting himself stuck in a model train while taking on one of them.
  • Tom and Jerry:
    • "The Bodyguard": Jerry, whose mouth has been glued shut to prevent himself from whistling to Spike for protection from Tom, gets stuck in the knothole of a fence. Spike passes by, unable to understand his plight, and Tom frees him by smacking him with a wooden plank.
    • "Ah, Sweet Mouse Story of Life": Tom ends up stuck in a drain pipe, with his rear end wedged at the top, and his front end coming out all the way down at the other end. Jerry manages to free him by using an air horn he had discovered earlier, and the episode ends with Tom chasing Jerry again with his body extremely elongated.
    • "Salt Water Tabby": Jerry gets stuck in the mouth of a soda bottle, which Tom maliciously shakes up, causing Jerry to pop out via the carbonation pressure. Tom also gets stuck inside a beach umbrella twice.
    • "Casanova Cat": While hiding in a vent, Jerry ties Tom’s tail with another cat’s tail, who gets pulled butt-first when he dashed away.
    • The Tom and Jerry Show (2014): In "Move It or Lose It", Spike the bulldog gets stuck in his own doghouse after fattening up on too many steaks. He has Tom try to keep the steaks away from him so he won't get tempted and can lose weight. Jerry eats up the steaks himself, becoming so plump that, by the end of the episode, he gets stuck in his own mouse hole.
  • Total Drama: in "Taking It To The Rim Reaper" Raj and Wayne attempt to go down the Three Point Pooper at the same time, only for them to get stuck and clog it. Bowie immediately tries to save them but gets wedged in with them, and finally Julia tries to get them out and gets wedged. It takes Ripper and an angry bear to get them free.
  • Wakfu: In "The Ecaflip Tree", Amalia gets stuck in a cat flap-like door due to her curvaceous hips, which Elely even lampshades as she and Yugo try to pull her free. Yugo eventually teleports outside and pushes her through from behind, much to her embarrassment.
  • The Wuzzles: In one episode, Hoppo gets her head stuck in a billboard, and Moosle gets her out by sawing it.

 
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Homer Gets Stuck in the Slide

When the Simpson family visits Mount Splashmore, Bart, Lisa and Homer decide to go on the H2WHOA! water slide. While Bart and Lisa have the time of their lives, their father Homer gets stuck midway through the slide, and the lifeguards then send a few kids down the slide to dislodge it, which they don't do, and the section has to be removed by emergency workers. Later on, Homer is booed by the other parkgoers when the emergency workers get him out of the slide and is then humiliated when the story makes the evening news, with eyewitnesses estimating his weight at between 400 and 500 pounds.

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