History Main / DuctTapeForEverything

-->'''Miles:''' I don't believe in a lot of things, but I do believe in duct tape.

* In ''VideoGame/TonyHawksUnderground'', at the beginning of the game [[Eric Sparrow TheRival]] says of your skateboard: "Looks like that thing's held together with duct tape."

* There is even a chapter titled after this versatile tape in ''Literature/SixtyEightRooms''. The main characters used it as a sticky climbing wall when they shrank themselves to five inches tall.

* A hole in your drum? A piece of your guitar get chipped off? There's a reason why duct tape is commonly called the (amateur) musician's best friend. It's a friend to a professional musician as well: Eddie Van Halen has a strip of duct-tape rolled into a tube, flattened and stuck to his guitar to hold picks. Music/KurtCobain once used duct tape to hold the tuning keys in place while he recorded a song with a cheap guitar. The song in question was "Polly," and that's the version used on '' Music/{{Nevermind}}''. Ricky Wilson of Music/TheB52s sometimes used a duct tape guitar strap.

* An episode of ''Series/{{Castle}}'' opens with Rick Castle having his daughter, Alexis, duct tape him into a chair, and leave him there, so he can figure out how his hero in [[ItsForABook the book he's writing]] will be able to extract himself from that situation.

* Like all things, duct tape can be used for malignant purposes. For example, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4R9wjjoeNI a cat that was wrapped neck to tail in tape.]] Anyone who would do this to such an adorable creature must be on the dark side of the duct-tape force.

** Duct Tape actually works fine as a bandage, if you're not too worried about sterility. Or if you use it with a sterile dressing.
** Unless you're Arcueid, at which point you'll just bleed right through it anyway. So, a subversion?

* In ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'', Alyx Vance's clothing is held together by duct tape.

* In ''VideoGame/SuperAnimalRoyale'', rolls of the stuff can be used to repair armor. One application equals as much strength as an entire level 1 vest.

* ''WebOriginal/OrionsArm'' has [[http://www.orionsarm.com/eg-article/464f285677e0e Duck Tape 2.0]], with {{nanomachines}} on the sticky side and solar cells on the other.

%%
%% This list of examples has been alphabetized. Please add your example in the proper place. Thanks!
%%
%%
%%
%%

* Advertising/FlexSeal commercials run on this, showing Phil Swift destroying items, then repairing them with whatever adhesive he's advertising. Probably the most memorable example of this is in the Flex Tape commercial, which has Swift saw a boat in half, then tape the two pieces back together and take the boat for a sail.

* An issue of ''ComicBook/CableAndDeadpool'' set during the ''ComicBook/CivilWar'' involved Cable, ComicBook/CaptainAmerica, and several others incapacitating Deadpool by cocooning him to a chair in a back alley with duct tape. As Cable states, "Duct tape. [[MoreDakka Lots of it]]. [[MotorMouth At least one roll for his mouth alone.]]" What follows is several pages of him musing to himself, alone. And then he has to pee. He really has to pee.

* ''VideoGame/DeadRising2'' actually uses this in gameplay, as duct taping weapons together is a core feature. giving such weapons as the [[ChainsawGood Chainspear]].
%% ** This really becomes funny in the cut scenes for the Combo Weapons. You see Chuck from behind, fiddling on the workbench and you hear the distinctive sound of duct tape being pulled from the roll, while he should be nailing up a [[BatterUp baseball bat]].
** There's also an achievement called "Duct Tape FTW".

** Though this troper has used toilet/kitchen paper held on with electrical tape as an emergency dressing. The important thing is to hold the wound until you can dress it properly.

* ''Film/CharliesAngels'': After Eric Knox takes Dylan prisoner he uses a strip of duct tape to gag her while he speaks to Charlie over the phone so she won't be able to speak in the background.

** It should be made clear that the Mythbusters did rate survival on a desert island under realistic conditions (other than the duct tape supply) to be highly plausible, mostly ''because'' they resorted to duct tape in 90% of their survival situations. However, an effectively infinite supply of duct tape was assumed (approximately a whole shipped crate, if not an entire shipment), as well as a water supply like a spring or stream.

* ''VideoGame/DeadRising2'' actually uses this in gameplay, as duct taping weapons together is a core feature. [[ChainsawGood Chain]][[BladeOnAStick spear]], anyone?
** This really becomes funny in the cut scenes for the Combo Weapons. You see Chuck from behind, fiddling on the workbench and you hear the distinctive sound of duct tape being pulled from the roll, while he should be nailing up a [[BatterUp baseball bat]].

** Sealing doors and windows with plastic and tape were, however, widely practiced in Israel during the Gulf War as a precaution against biochemical Scud missile attacks. The rationale was to limit exposure by reducing drafts, given that a one-inch gap under a door is roughly equivalent to a five-inch hole in the wall. Residents were also issued gas masks as a secondary defense and were advised that in spite of aggressive sealing, a conventional room cannot be made airtight enough to accidentally suffocate the occupants.

* ''Series/YoungSheldon'': In "Freshman Orientation and the Inventor of the Zipper", Sheldon rips his pants, and then duct-tapes them back together.

* ''VideoGame/Doom3'' is an indirect example. Most fans didn't like the "flashlight simulator"[[labelnote:*]]in that you can only have a torch or a gun out at a time, and the game is ''[[WhoForgotTheLights very]]'' [[WhoForgotTheLights dark]][[/labelnote]] aspect of the game, so much so that the first mod created for it attaches a flashlight to most weapons. Its name? "Duct tape". The author says the mod is justified and not a cheat, because it's [[FakeDifficulty wholly illogical]] that one shouldn't be able to find a roll of duct tape or a similar adhesive in a space station of the future.

-->'''Daffy:''' Good thing I always carry duct tape. Geddit? ''Duck'' tape? ...No sense of humor.

* In ''Film/{{Defendor}}'', the title character(Woody Harrelson)'s costume makes good use of it.

* ''Fanfic/DoingItRightThisTime'' proves that even ArtificialHumans created by SufficientlyAdvancedAliens appreciate the many uses of duct tape, as several important parts of the [[MacGyvering desperately kludged-together]] ''time machine'' Kaworu creates to avert the BadFuture are held together with it. Shinji does not find this very reassuring, but it does work.

* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/5843783/1/Disarmament Disarmament]]'', Storm Shadow and Snake Eyes decide to see who can carry more weapons for an "average infiltration-assassination" mission. The ExtendedDisarming reveals that in addition to ''a lot'' of weapons, Snake Eyes carries a roll of duct tape, just in case.

* In ''VideoGame/TonyHawksUnderground'', at the beginning of the game TheRival says of your skateboard: "Looks like that thing's held together with duct tape."