Not Tropeworthy: Pay Phone

the TRS thread

Pay Phone is about… pay phones, which is People Sit on Chairs on its own. A wick check was done (with some help from Tonwen), 50 (53 if we count miscellaneous examples) of the 80 wicks were checked, and while many wicks were being used for more meaningful concepts, the concepts were all over the place: Pay phones considered old-fashioned In-Universe, Pay phones being the only phone in a certain area, Pay phones being used as ways to obtain money, etc. There were also some ZCEs too.

Out of all the wicks checked:

• 24/50 wicks had context for the pay phone. (48%)
  • 3/50 wicks were about pay phones being the only phones available in a certain area.
  • 2/50 wicks were about pay phones being considered old-fashioned In-Universe.
  • 4/50 wicks were about paying problems involving pay phones, such as a character not having enough money to continue using the pay phone to call someone.
  • 2/50 wicks were about destroying pay phones to obtain money.
  • The below concepts had only a wick (2%) each for the concept. All added up to 13/50 wicks (26%).
    • Pay Phones as gateways. (1/50)
    • Characters using pay phones to prevent confidential calls on phone bills. (1/50)
    • Characters searching for pay phones with dial tones (1/50)
    • Characters using pay phones to attract another character to the pay phone (1/50)
    • Characters use pay phones to avoid taps (already covered by Burner Phones) (1/50)
    • Character uses a pay phone for so long, that other people desperately want to use it too (1/50)
    • Characters give the numbers of pay phones on job applications (1/50)
    • Character uses a number of a pay phone for a scam (1/50)
    • Phone Booths are portrayed as easily draggable (1/50)
    • Character uses Pay Phones over fear that normal phones may be spying on them (1/50)
    • Pay Phones are always under surveillance (covered by Big Brother Is Watching) (1/50)
    • Pay Phones labelled as "out of order" (1/50)
    • Pay Phones depicted for horror (1/50)
• 12/50 of the wicks were either "Pay Phones exist" or ZCES. (24%)
• 8/50 of the wicks were potholes which didn't fit into meaningful categories. (16%)
• 5/50 of the wicks were used for "Technology Marches On" examples. (10%)
• 1/50 (4/53) wicks were used for other purposes. (2%)
  • 3/50 wicks were used miscellaneously. (Not counted)
  • 1 wick of the 50 was used for speculation of pay phones being used as a transportation device. (2%)

There are currently 1462 inbounds, so, to preserve those inbounds, my proposed ideas are to disambiguate the page, or make the page a redirect to Phone Booth, which is already a disambiguation page, as having two disambiguation pages related to similar phone equipment seems redundant.

Amonimus also suggested the ideas of Archaic Pay Phones and No Mobile Or Change being their own tropes or at least being put into the Trope Idea Salvage Yard, and they also suggested creating a Useful Notes page for Pay Phones.

• (Anime.Lupin III From Siberia With Love) Pay Phone: Goemon uses one in the Siberian village to get in contact with Lupin and explain where he and the gold are. And because it's the only one, there's a really long line, and he can't talk for long.
• (Fridge.Pokemon) Despite the fact that you have the ability to video-chat with your mom, turn living creatures into light energy to be stored in a tiny ball, and send said balls to the professor or a Pokemon Center remotely, you don't have a cell phone to call for help even if it does exist, and Arceus knows where the nearest Pay Phone is. And that's just in a major city; imagine how much worse this already terrible situation would be if you happen to be out in the wilderness, many kilometers away from the nearest town or city? How many people have died because they couldn't get emergency help for themselves or their Pokemon? Pothole
• (Characters.Mashin Hero Wataru Main Characters) Running Gag: Shibaraku can only summon his Mashin, Senjinmaru by a giving it a paid call from the nearest local phone booth he could find. Which is a real pain-in-the-ass. On bad days, Senjinmaru couldn't pickup the phone in time; worse, Senjinmaru can call sick and would arrive extremely late with only a few HP to survive. Pothole

Pay Phones are considered old-fashioned In-Universe (2/50 - 4%)

• (Film.Odd Squad The Movie) Pay Phone: One is seen when Debbie explains how she tried to get to a phone to call for help. The fact that it's unusual to see one in a modern setting is lampshaded by Olympia.
• (Cell Phones Are Useless) Lampshaded in The Simpsons as far back as 1995 in "Two Dozen & One Greyhounds", when Mr. Burns tries to update the old Pay Phone cliche with a mobile phone. Mid-sentence mention

Pay Phone paying problems (4/50 - 8%)

• (Film.Dr Strangelove) Pay Phone: Mandrake has to relay the recall code to the Pentagon on one of these, and naturally finds he doesn't have enough change. Fortunately a vending machine and a man with a firearm are conveniently nearby.
• (Film.Soldier Of Orange) Pay Phone: The Dutch resistance have just gone out of their way to smuggle a radio from Britain over the channel into the occupied Netherlands, only to find that it was been waterlogged and unusable. To give the freedom fighters a vital transmission, the protagonist, who is still in London, has to wade onshore in Leiden, don a British Royal Navy officers' uniform, use it to infiltrate a German officers' party taking place on the beach promenade, carrying nothing more than some spare change, just to call them from a local public phone which is there. But the phone doesn't accept zinc coins anymore, so he has to bluff his way through a German roadblock, steal a bike, and find an older payphone. He still makes the call too late, and the resistance runs into an ambush.
• (Film.Terminator 2 Judgment Day) Pay Phone: John Connor has the T-800 pull over to a pay phone so that John could make a call to his foster mother Janelle to warn her about the T-1000, but as the only money he has on hand are all paper bills, he doesn't have a quarter he could use to make the call. John asks the T-800 if he has a quarter, and the T-800 obliges by smashing open the coin storage compartment of the pay phone with his fist so John could get a quarter to use.
• (Film.War Games) Pay Phone: David Lightman is stranded in Colorado without money and can't make a phone call from a payphone, so he uses an old soda can pull tab to jerry-rig the payphone to make a free phone call.

Characters try to obtain money from pay phones (2/50 - 4%)

• (Film.Police Academy) Pay Phone: In Back in Training, Lt. Tackleberry deals with a woman who lost her quarter in a pay phone and the operator keeps insisting that the phone company will mail her back the quarter. He takes out his gun and shoots the pay phone, causing quarters to pour out of the coin slot. He takes the pile of quarters and asks the woman to identify which quarter is hers.
• (MythologyGag.Duck Tales 2017) Louie spends what he believes is Scrooge's #1 Dime in a vending machine; it's actually a decoy. Louie spends the rest of the episode trying to get the dime back. In the original series, "Frozen Assets" sees Fenton Crackshell take the dime for its case - and use it in a Pay Phone. Fenton spends the rest of the episode trying to get the dime back. Mention to Pay Phone

Pay Phones as gateways (1/50 - 2%)

• (Manga.Psyren) Pay Phone: In the Psyren world, they are used as gateways back to the present.

Characters use pay phones to prevent confidential calls on phone bills (1/50 - 2%)

• (Film.Brick) Pay Phone: Averts the usual trope in which the protagonist walks by a mysteriously ringing phone, as Brendan answers phone calls at pay phones more often than he makes them. This appears to be idiosyncratic to him, as everyone else appears to have cell phones. Other characters use the pay phones so confidential calls won't show up on their phone bills.

Characters search for a pay phone with a dialtone (1/50 - 2%)

• (Film.Carriers) Pay Phone: One of Kate's quirks is checking every single payphone she comes across, trying to find one with a dialtone so that she can contact her parents. Bobby eventually mocks her for it, saying that her parents are obviously dead. Near the end, Kate looks at another phone ... and doesn't bother checking.

Characters use pay phones to attract another character to the pay phone (1/50 - 2%)

• (Film.Amelie) Pay Phone: Amelie, in a nearby cafe, calls a payphone next to a passer-by to make him walk into the phone booth and find a present she's left there for him. She plays a similar trick on Nino later.

Characters use pay phones to avoid taps (already covered by Burner Phones) (1/50 - 2%)

• (TheWire.Tropes M To R) Pay Phone: In the first season, the drug communication is all done on pay phones and pagers, to avoid taps. In later seasons (when those pay phones have all been torn out), the gangs buy short-term prepaid phones in bulk from all over the state of Maryland so they can stay one step ahead of the court orders.

Character uses a pay phone for so long, that other people desperately want to use it too (1/50 - 2%)

• (Phoneaholic Teenager) Rarely, she might be doing likewise at a Pay Phone, while The Hero desperately waits to use it. Mentions Pay Phone

Characters give the numbers of pay phones on job applications (1/50 - 2%)

• (Film.Mo Money) Pay Phone: Johnny gives the number of one near their usual turf as his number on his job application. It's unclear whether the brothers have a phone of their own.

Character uses a number of a pay phone for a scam (1/50 - 2%)

• (PlayingWith.Fake Charity) Exaggerated: Alice and Bob set up a website, make up a name for their (alleged) non-profit, open up a P.O. Box, and even rent office space or open up a UPS Store address (to provide a physical address). They give a phone number, and it rings, but it either always goes to voicemail (and the call never gets returned), or it goes to a Pay Phone, or even to someone else's telephone. All records that are sent in for tax purposes are completely falsified, or straight-up non-existent. They ask for donations using hard-to-trace methods, such as prepaid cards, cash, money orders, and wire transfers. Bonus points if they actually have "volunteers" helping them, who have no access to financial records. In any case, there is no money going to help child cancer patients or their families, or research, but Alice and Bob can now have the lucrative One-Hour Work Week they've always dreamed of...and the summer home at the lake to go with it.

Phone Booths are always portrayed as easily draggable (1/50 - 2%)

• (ComicStrip.US Acres) Pay Phone: In the February 28, 1989 strip◊, Orson is inside a phone booth when the phone rings. It's for Bo, who just takes the phone away, dragging the booth and Orson with him.

Character uses Pay Phones over fear that normal phones may be spying on them (1/50 - 2%)

• (Series.The Sopranos) Surveillance as the Plot Demands: The FBI has A Day In The Lime Light episode where the procedure regarding how to plant a surveillance bug in Tony's house is shown in detail. Tony is a Properly Paranoid boss who regularly sweeps his headquarters for bugs, relies on Pay Phones, and avoids talking shop inside his house, but he is vulnerable in the noisy basement. The bug eventually has a very limited use and the trope is subverted because the judge is adamant and the FBI is only given one shot at this method that is never used again. Mentions Pay Phone.

Pay Phones are always under surveillance (covered by Big Brother Is Watching) (1/50 - 2%)

• (Film.Apocalypse) Pay Phone: They still exist in the Tribulation, but as seen in the third film, they have handprint scanners for identifying who the user is in order for the transaction to go through. Alternately, though, they could be free phone call booths and the handprint scanner is only there to prevent unauthorized use by anyone who doesn't bear the Mark of the Beast.

Pay Phones labelled as "out of order" (1/50 - 2%)

• (Film.Teddy Bear) Pay Phone: Used for a Phoney Call. Kept unoccupied with a fake "Out of order" sign.

Pay Phone horror (1/60 - 2%)

• (VideoGame.Death End Re Quest) Pay Phone: One can be found next to the first save point, loudly ringing. Answer it and you're treated to a man screaming in agony, scaring Mai probably as much as the player. The phone finally sees use once you are playing through a New Game Plus, granting access to the Ao Oni minigame and the Pain Area.

• (Fanfic.The Return To Gravity Falls) Pay Phone: How Jackson Fulbrow communicates with the Warlock in Monster Politics. Either used for a pay phone being present or it's a Zero-Context Example
• (PersonOfInterest.Tropes N To S) Pay Phone: These are cool again because of this show. Zero-Context Example. Otherwise, it looks poorly written, as it reads like a YMMV reaction.
• (Film.Three The Hard Way) Pay Phone: Jimmy is lured to one to try to get Wendy back. He is almost run over by a dump truck. Reads more like Pay Phones exist. It also lacks much of the context on why it is being used to save Wendy.
• (Film.Its A Mad Mad Mad Mad World) Pay Phone: A plot point in the middle of the film. Zero-Context Example
• (Characters.Drowned God) Pay Phone: What she uses to call you and presumably the Hacker. Pay Phones exist or a Zero-Context Example
• (Literature.The Saga Of Tuck) Pay Phone: Tuck frequently needs to find a pay phone to contact someone. Still common at the time the story is set. Pay Phones exist, and the only context is that it is old technology
• (Music.The Wall) Pay Phone: In the movie, Pink's call to his wife, only to find another man answering, was done via pay phone. He is seen sinking down to the floor when he realizes what has happened. Pay Phones Exist, the fact that the call was done via payphone has no real bearing on the event
• (VideoGame.Yesterday) Pay Phone: There's one at the station. Pay Phones exist
• (Music.Travis Tritt) Pay Phone: "Here's a Quarter (Call Someone Who Cares)" has in the video a quarter constantly flying in the air until at the end it goes into the slot of a pay phone that the singer's ex-girlfriend is left standing next to, with the title of the song suggesting that's what she should do at that point. Pay Phones exist. The only purpose for the pay phone is to call someone else.
• (Recap.The Powerpuff Girls S 4 EP 4) Pay Phone: The third riddle involves the girls having to reach one within 3 minutes, without flying. Pay Phones exist. Otherwise, it might be a Zero-Context Example or poorly written.
• (Film.Fight Club) Pay Phone: The Narrator calls Tyler on a payphone after his apartment is blown up. Tyler doesn't answer, but calls the payphone back to talk to him. A few years later, this scene would probably never have happened. Pay Phones exist, although the idea of calling back from missed calls with context could be tropable.
• (Recap.Power Rangers Dino Fury Episode Nine Cut Off) Pay Phone: After Jane and J-Borg's first attempt to call the Rangers fails, they try to use a public phone. It also fails.

• (Landline Eavesdropping) Sister Trope to Two-Way Tapping. See also Pay Phone and Secret Diary. Could lead to a Funny Phone Misunderstanding. Mentions Pay Phone
• (Drop-In Landlord) Mrs. Finley in Stay Tooned!, the landlady for the apartment building your character lives in, though she only shows up after the building gets tooned and overrun by cartoon characters. She sometimes pops up in the building's hallway to pester you, and occasionally assaulted by the Toons, just as they do to you. If you try to talk to her or call her using the Pay Phone, Mrs. Finley refuses to believe that anything weird is going on. Wick to Pay Phone
• (Video Phone) Compare: Comm Links, for another Sci-Fi phone equivalent. See also Pay Phone for more contemporary uses. For a breakdown on how such devices tend to operate in fiction, see Hollywood Web Cam. Mentions Pay Phone
• (Characters.Sesame Street Anything Muppets) Short-Distance Phone Call: Mumford manages to mess up a playdate in Miles' room via a Pay Phone Around the Corner. Mentions to Pay Phone.
• (Retro Universe) In Time has no cellphones let alone smartphones; all calls are taken over old-school Pay Phones or landlines. Wick to Pay Phone. Also seems more like Retro Universe than it's own trope
• (Big Brother Is Watching) The Barrier: Outside of the enclave for the elites, there are surveillance drones in the street and each block has a government informer whose job seems to basically be a combination of professional Nosy Neighbor and government propaganda parrot. Most people also need to use a Pay Phone to makes calls or meet in person if neither side has their own phone, which greatly reduces the options for discrete communication. There are also undercover policemen in the most unlikely places. Mentions Pay Phone.
• (Telephone Song) Travis Tritt's "Here's A Quarter, Call Someone Who Cares", which is a Break-Up Song where the singer leaves his ex by a Pay Phone with a quarter to call someone else. Mentions Pay Phone. Also, since the similar trope example is Pay Phones Exists, it falls under here.
• (Recap.Better Call Saul S 1 E 3 Nacho) The Alleged Car: At the Pay Phone, Jimmy sees two men approaching, so he tries to start his car but it fails. He then decides to take to his heels instead. Mentions Pay Phone.

• (Film.Cold Enough For Snow) Pay Phone: A homesick student is twice seen using a payphone in a communal student area, as only a minority of students had mobile phones in 1997; and as such, everyone can hear her pleading with her mother to be allowed home. Aside for being Pay Phones Exist, It's also Technology Marches On.
• (Trivia.Cant Hardly Wait) Unintentional Period Piece: The X-Files? Brad and Gwyneth? Pay phones? Yep, it's The '90s. The special edition DVD even has a '90s trivia game to lampshade this fact. Pothole to Pay Phone
• (Confiscated Phone) John Doe is using a phone, typically now it's a cellphone, but up until about the 1980s it was a Pay Phone or in rare cases, his or another person's home phone. Mentions Pay Phone
• (Trope Breaker) Cell phones are a Trope Breaker for tropes involving Pay Phones and phone booths, as well as many other tropes. Dead zones are also far more coincidentally (in)convenient in fiction — especially in slasher films — than one would expect in the real world, as though the cellular phone is powered by the same thing running the Millennium Falcon... (See Cell Phones Are Useless.) Many related tropes now come through other means, like a character's particular habits involving their cell phone (or lack of one). The film Phone Booth was in Development Hell for so long that phone booths were no longer relevant by the time it was finally made, so the writers had to jump through a few hoops to explain why the main character would be using one. Like with the map example above, however, there are a few possible justifications. Wick to Pay Phone
• (Anime.Rah Xephon) Pay Phone: not only is one still present in 2027, but it magically manages to work and deliver a convenient call to a passing-by Ayato not five minutes after Haruka states that the phones in the area aren't working. Most of the context comes from the fact that pay phones are still present in 2027. Considering the work was made in 2002, it doesn't seem intentional.

• (WMG.GFRIEND) It's an overarching story told inside the same universe, so it isn't a reach to group together the scenes of "forests with mysterious fog". The girls probably got trapped in the mists of time many times in this story as that's what "Sunrise" is about. The tunnel needs to transport them to a secret and important place (maybe the Pay Phone is also a kind of transportation). Mentions Pay Phone. Also used for the idea of a pay phone being used as a transportation device.

• (Narrative Devices) Pay Phone Pay Phone is on the index
• (It.Elenco Provvisorio P) Pay Phone [Telefono A Pagamento] Mentions Italian name for Pay Phone
• (TheProblemWithPenIsland.N To Z) Pay pH One (You want that acid? Well, you're going to have to pay for it!) This one's interesting. It's from a Just for Fun subpage.