Hello, hello, baby
You called, I can't hear a thing
I have got no service
In the club, you see, see
Wha-wha-what did you say?
Oh, you're breaking up on me
Sorry, I cannot hear you
I'm kinda busy
You called, I can't hear a thing
I have got no service
In the club, you see, see
Wha-wha-what did you say?
Oh, you're breaking up on me
Sorry, I cannot hear you
I'm kinda busy
— Lady Gaga, "Telephone"
Hello, you've reached the index for tropes about telephones and their uses. To see the list of tropes in English, press "1". Para continuar en español...
Tropes:
- 555: The tendency for In-Universe phone numbers to use 555 as the exchange code.
- Anonymous Public Phone Call: A character creates an anonymous phone call with a telephone booth.
- Burner Phones: Criminals using cheap phones, which they then destroy or throw away so that it won't be possible for the authorities to trace their signals.
- Butt-Dialing Mordor (doesn't always involve a phone, but can): Accidentally contacting evil via long-range communication.
- The Calls Are Coming from Inside the House: Plot points based upon the old Urban Legend about a woman who kept getting creepy calls asking how the kids she was babysitting were doing, then was told, "The calls are coming from inside the house" by the police.
- Calling Out for Not Calling: When somebody is late, someone else tells them off for not messaging them.
- Cell Phones Are Useless: To avoid plot holes, cell phones fail far more than they should.
- Compromising Call: A sub-trope of So Much for Stealth for when someone accidentally blows someone else's cover by phoning them.
- Confiscated Phone: Stealing someone's cell phone or snatching a landline or payphone.
- Covert Emergency Call: Calling, or otherwise contacting, emergency services without speaking (or by speaking in code).
- Cut Phone Lines: Someone cuts the phone lines so that their victim can't phone for help.
- Cutting the Electronic Leash: Defying your superiors by throwing away or destroying your phone.
- Disconnected by Death: A phone call abruptly ends because one participant died.
- Dumped via Text Message: Breaking up via text, email, etc.
- Embarrassing Ringtone: A character uses an embarrassing song as their ringtone.
- Embarrassing Voicemail: Someone leaves an awkward or humiliating voicemail.
- Escape Call: Someone doesn't want to attend an event, so they have someone phone them and pretend there's an emergency.
- Evil Phone: When a supernatural villain phones a character.
- Fake Static: Someone avoids conversation by pretending that their communications equipment isn't working right.
- Fake Texting: Pretending to text or check social media to avoid interaction or suspicion.
- For Inconvenience, Press "1": An automated dialing maze using interactive voice response.
- Funny Answering Machine: Answering machines or voicemail messages that highlight a character as quirky.
- Funny Phone Misunderstanding: A comical misunderstanding happens over the phone.
- Harassing Phone Call: Being contacted by someone who's either a pervert or straight-up evil.
- I Can See You: Someone gets a call, thinks the caller is far away, but then the caller reveals that they can see the call-ee, and it's creepy.
- Intimate Telecommunications: Audio Erotica via the phone lines.
- Jenny's Number: The phone number "867-5309", as a reference to a song about a woman named Jenny, who had this number.
- Kinda Busy Here: Someone answers their phone while they're busy, to tell the caller that it's inconvenient.
- Landline Eavesdropping: Using a second handset on a landline to listen in on someone's call.
- Lost in Transmission: Someone receives important information, but some of it is lost.
- Mistaken for Prank Call: Someone phones another person for a true, but out-there reason (e.g. "You've won a competition"). The other person thinks it's a prank call.
- Newhart Phone Call: A phone call where we only hear one side of the conversation.
- "No Talking or Phones" Warning: Before the movie plays at a movie theater, there's a short film warning the audience that they shouldn't talk or have their phones on while the movie is playing.
- No, You Hang Up First: Two characters, who are usually a couple, playfully argue over who should hang up first.
- One Phone Call: Someone in the slammer has the right to one phone call.
- The Operators Must Be Crazy: Incompetent phone operators.
- Phoneaholic Teenager: Teens are constantly glued to their phones.
- Phone Booth Changing Room: A superhero uses a telephone booth to change from their street clothes into their superhero outfit.
- Phone Call from the Dead: Someone gets a letter/call/email/whatever from their loved one... except that loved one is dead!
- Phone-In Detective: Someone can do detective work over the phone.
- Phone Number Jingle: Using a phone number as a jingle.
- Phone-Trace Race: Police set up a phone trace for a criminal and need them to stay on the line for a certain amount of time.
- Phone Word: Phone numbers that spell words.
- Phoney Call: Pretending to be on the phone to someone, when you're not, or you're talking to someone else, or they hung up, or it's really an AI on the other end.
- Phoning the Phantom: Phoning a supernatural creature that's invisible/inaudible to certain people.
- Pocket Dial: Accidentally calling someone by sitting down when the phone was in your back pocket (also known as butt dialing).
- Pop-Up Texting: A character is reading their phone, and the words are shown as a pop-up.
- Prank Call: Calling people on the telephone to harass them by tricking them into saying something ridiculous.
- The Radio Dies First: A radio breaks down to set the plot forward.
- Radio Silence: Not transmitting your radio unless you have a very good reason.
- Reaching Between the Lines: People can send objects or body parts via phone, or make their phones grow eyes, mouths, etc.
- Reinventing the Telephone: When characters use this otherworldly way of communicating, even though it'd be easier to phone them.
- Repeating So the Audience Can Hear: Someone talks to a person over the phone and repeats what the other person is saying so the audience knows what they're saying.
- Ridiculously Long Phone Hold: Waiting a ludicrously long time for a phone operator to be available.
- Ridiculously Long Phone Number: A phone number that's really long.
- Ring-Ring-CRUNCH!: Someone is annoyed by their cell phone or alarm clock ringing, so attacks it.
- Ripped from the Phone Book: When someone finds a phone number important to an investigation, they rip out the whole page from the phone book.
- Rudely Hanging Up: Someone rudely hangs up in the middle of a phone conversation.
- Shoe Phone: Spy technology disguised as mundane items.
- Short-Distance Phone Call: Two people are talking on the phone, but they're within speaking distance.
- Smell Phone: Smells can travel through communication devices.
- Split-Screen Phone Call: During a phone call, a split screen effect is used so we can see both the caller and the person being called at the same time.
- Status Cell Phone: Cell phone ownership as a status symbol.
- Sudden Lack of Signal: If someone's lost their cell phone signal, that means they're somewhere peculiar.
- Super Cell Reception: Cell phones work even in places they shouldn't be able to.
- Supernatural Phone: A phone with super tech or magical powers.
- Suspicious Missed Messages: If someone won't answer their phone, they're probably in trouble.
- Telecom Tree: Phoning allies to help with a situation.
- Telephone Song: A song about phone calls.
- Telephone Teleport: A character can travel via phone.
- Tied Up on the Phone: Someone gets caught in a telephone cord.
- Tin-Can Telephone: Low-tech telecommunications using two cans and a string (or a talking tube).
- TV Telephone Etiquette: A character hangs up the phone without even saying goodbye (unlike Rudely Hanging Up, it is at the end of the conversation, but it's still impolite).
- Useless Without Cell Phones: A character who becomes dumb without their phone or computer.
- Video Phone: Phones with video screens.
- Voicemail Confusion: A character mistakes a voicemail for an actual person.
See also:
- 900 Number: A Useful Notes page for special phone numbers, meant for special services such as fake psychics, or people pretending to be fictional characters.
- British Postal and Telephone System: A Useful Notes page that includes information on making calls in the UK.
- Cell Phones Could Have Solved This Plot: Classic works that wouldn't have made sense in a world with mobile phones.
- Going Mobile: A Useful Notes page for issues created by the Mobile Web.
- North American Numbering Plan: A Useful Notes page on making calls in the US and its territories, Canada, and large parts of the Caribbean. By the way, this is where the 900 number originated.
