History Main / DoorDumb

* A commercial for the upcoming-at-the-time ''{{Pokemon}} [[VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver Crystal]]'' had a team of explorers encountering a huge door with some writings on it, and try to push it open. Near the end, the camera cuts to a wide shot of the door, which clearly says "PULL" in Unown letters. We also see two natives discussing it:

* A commercial for the upcoming-at-the-time ''{{Pokemon}} [[PokemonGoldAndSilver Crystal]]'' had a team of explorers encountering a huge door with some writings on it, and try to push it open. Near the end, the camera cuts to a wide shot of the door, which clearly says "PULL" in Unown letters. We also see two natives discussing it:

* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJZg2LGb2xY The subject of a montage]] in the sixth season of ''AmericanIdol''.

* [[UsefulNotes/AmericanFootball NFL]] humor blog KissingSuzyKolber depicts Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger as particularly stupid, with his difficulty in opening a door as one extreme example.

* [[spoiler:The TARDIS]] gives [[Series/DoctorWho the Doctor]] a dressing down in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E4TheDoctorsWife The Doctors Wife]] for consistantly opening [[spoiler: her]] doors the wrong way ([[IsThatWhatTheyreCallingItNow no, not like that]]). The doors open freely either way, but after about 900 years of walking past the sign and still making that mistake, the Doctor can well be described as door dumb.

* A variation in ''TheParentTrap'' (Lindsay Lohan version): Annie, in Hallie's house, has trouble opening the back door, because she is trying to turn the knob instead of pushing them.
* In Guy Ritchie's ''{{Snatch}}'', Sol and Vinnie make an unsuccessful attempt to rob a bookie. In retreat after the bullet-proof shutters have fallen over the counter, they are stymied by the shop's door. Needless to say, after they have given up hope of getting out and collapsed to the floor (revealing their unmasked faces to the CCTV), their getaway driver, Tyrone, opens the door the other way to see what's taking them so long.

* In BoyMeetsBoy, Skids spends ''hours'' trying to push open a door with a "pull" sign after Harly was [[ItMakesSenseInContext kidnapped by anime fans.]]

* There's a joke in which a guy tells his therapist/psychologist of a recurring dream in which he's in front of a massive door with a sign on it, which he pushes with all his might, but it won't budge. When he wakes, he's drenched in sweat and bone-tired. When asked what the sign says, he replies "pull".

* [[spoiler:The TARDIS]] gives [[DoctorWho the Doctor]] a dressing down in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E4TheDoctorsWife The Doctors Wife]] for consistantly opening [[spoiler: her]] doors the wrong way ([[IsThatWhatTheyreCallingItNow no, not like that]]). The doors open freely either way, but after about 900 years of walking past the sign and still making that mistake, the Doctor can well be described as door dumb.

* In ''{{30 Rock}}'', when Jack Donaghy is replaced by Don Geiss' TooDumbToLive, {{Cloudcuckoolander}} daughter, the scene that sets up her character shows her pulling in desperation at a bathroom door with the words "push" printed on it very clearly.

* In a volume of ''Amelia Rules'', one character spends the entire story pushing the "pull" door; Amelia finally breaks down and points this out only to discover he's doing it deliberately as a science fair project.

* In ''30 Rock'', when Jack Donaghy is replaced by Don Geiss' TooDumbToLive, {{Cloudcuckoolander}} daughter, the scene that sets up her character shows her pulling in desperation at a bathroom door with the words "push" printed on it very clearly.

* The translated lyrics of one of the opera songs in the {{Discworld}} novel ''Maskerade'' relate to this.

* A commercial for the upcoming-at-the-time ''{{Pokemon}} Crystal'' had a team of explorers encountering a huge door with some writings on it, and try to push it open. Near the end, the camera cuts to a wide shot of the door, which clearly says "PULL" in Unown letters. We also see two natives discussing it:

* [[spoiler:The TARDIS gives]] [[DoctorWho the Doctor]] [[spoiler:a dressing down in [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/DoctorWhoS32E4TheDoctorsWife: The Doctors Wife]] for consistantly opening her doors the wrong way ([[IsThatWhatTheyreCallingItNow no, not like that]]) since they ran away together. The doors open freely either way, but after about 900 years of walking past the sign and still making that mistake, the Doctor can well be described as door dumb.]]

* In Guy Ritchie's ''Snatch,'' Sol and Vinnie make an unsuccessful attempt to rob a bookie. In retreat after the bullet-proof shutters have fallen over the counter, they are stymied by the shop's door. Needless to say, after they have given up hope of getting out and collapsed to the floor (revealing their unmasked faces to the CCTV), their getaway driver, Tyrone, opens the door the other way to see what's taking them so long.

* There's a joke in which a guy tells of a recurring dream in which he's in front of a massive door with a sign on it, which he pushes with all his might, but it won't budge. When he wakes, he's drenched in sweat and bone-tired. When asked what the sign says, he replies "pull".

* There's a joke in which a guy tells of a recurring dream in which he's in front of a massive door with a sign on it, which he pushes with all his might, but it won't budge. When he wakes, he's drenched in sweat and bone-tired. When asked what the sign says, he replies "pull".
* A common problem for people adept at reading backwards encountering glass doors. Yes it says "Push", or at least "hsuP", but that's a message intended for people on the other side of the door, not the person reading the back of the word through the glass.

[[AC:RealLife]]

* A commercial for the upcoming-at-the-time ''{{Pokemon}} Crystal'' had a team of explorers encountering a huge door with some writings on it, and try to push it open. Near the end, the camera cuts to a wide shot of the door, which clearly says "PULL" in unknown letters. We also see two natives discussing it:

* A variation in ''TheParentTrap'' (Lindsay Lohan version): Annie, in Hallie's house, has trouble opening the back door, because she is trying to turn the knob instead of pushing them.

[[AC:Uncategorized]]
* TruthInTelevision. Many, ''many'' people in RealLife have done this, including GeorgeWBush himself.
** Donald Norman's seminal book on design, [[http://cscs.umich.edu/~crshalizi/reviews/everyday-things/ The Psychology of Everyday Things]], devotes nearly an entire chapter to describing how the design of door handles leads people to make this mistake.
* There's a joke in which a guy tells of a recurring dream in which he's in front of a massive door with a sign on it, which he pushes with all his might, but it won't budge. When he wakes, he's drenched in sweat and bone-tired. When asked what the sign says, he replies "pull".

* In Guy Ritchie's ''Snatch,'' Sol and Vinnie make an unsuccessful attempt to rob a bookies. In retreat after the bullet-proof shutters have fallen over the counter, they are stymied by the shop's door. Needless to say, after they have given up hope of getting out and collapsed to the floor (revealing their unmasked faces to the CCTV), their getaway driver, Tyrone, opens the door the other way to see what's taking them so long.
* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJZg2LGb2xY The subject of a montage]] in the sixth season of ''AmericanIdol''.
** It's worth noting that ALL those doors are double doors both of which are "push" doors but one of them is locked closed. That's illegal. People do it all the time but it's still illegal. If there's a fire people won't be able to/have time to/be allowed by the rest of the crowd to go to the other door; they'll get crushed up against that door by the fleeing mob and die.
* In ''30 Rock'', when Jack Donaghy is replaced by Don Geiss' TooDumbToLive, {{Cloudcuckoolander}} daughter, the scene that sets up her character shows her pulling in desperation at a bathroom door with the words "push" printed on it very clearly.

[[quoteright:325:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/midvale_school_for_the_gifted_4476.jpg]]

* In ''{{30 Rock}}'', when Jack Donaghy is replaced by Don Geiss' TooDumbToLive, {{Cloudcuckoolander}} daughter, the scene that sets up her character shows her pulling in desperation at a bathroom door with the words "push" printed on it very clearly.

* In ''30Rock'', when Jack Donaghy is replaced by Don Geiss' TooDumbToLive, {{Cloudcuckoolander}} daughter, the scene that sets up her character shows her pulling in desperation at a bathroom door with the words "push" printed on it very clearly.