History Main / OpenSesame

* The name of this trope comes from the tales of "Literature/AliBabaAndTheFortyThieves", where the 40 Thieves hide their stolen loot in a cave. The entrance uses a rock that moves only when you say, "Open Sesame" (Ali Baba follows them there).

->''"Sesame is a word that opens a lot of doors where I come from."''
-->-- Kippi ben Kippod, ''Rechov Sumsum''

* An episode of ''Series/{{Leverage}}'' has a safe with a voice activated lock. The thieves get in by being able to record every possible sound from the safe's owner by getting him to say the name of a very complicated French dish, then have him drop the F-bomb when he realizes it's raw shrimp.

* In ''WesternAnimation/PopeyeTheSailorMeetsAliBabasFortyThieves'', Popeye pursues the Forty Thieves when they kidnap Olive and Wimpy to their cave and has some difficulty remembering the magic word he overheard them use to open the door and just smashes through. Later, when Popeye is beset with the thieves and can stands no more, he takes out his spinach can and says to it, "Open, sez me!" and it magically opens.

* The ''Anime/LupinIIIRedJacket'' episode "[[Recap/LupinIIIS2E19 A Safe Bet]]" has Lupin desperately trying to open a specially-made safe that contains the antidote to a poison he has been given. After trying every trick he knows, he gets so frustrated he wonders if opening it isn't something as stupid as yelling "Open Sesame!" It is.

** Averted in "Survival of the Idiots" where Spongebob and Patrick are trapped in thee hibernating Sandy's wintery tree dome. Patrick takes a deep breath, throws out his arms, and says "[[SimpletonVoice Open Sesame! ... Well, I've done all I can do.]]"

** Averted in another episode where Spongebob and Patrick are trapped behind a door. Patrick takes a deep breath, throws out his arms, and says "[[SimpletonVoice Open Sesame! ... Well, I've done all I can do.]]"

* A 1950s movie has the wives and daughters of the original Forty Thieves, seeking vengeance for their slaughtered families, living in a cave worked by this means... sort of.

* Used as the basis for two gadgets in ''Anime/{{Doraemon}}''. One is a jar of literal 'open sesame', where if you sprinkle the sesame on any locked object it'll open. Another one instead gives any openable object biometric authentication (only the person who sprinkled the sesame can open the object, and if you've got a cold causing your voice to change it's not going to work). We're not told what happens if you use the first kind of sesame on an object secured by the second kind of sesame.

* ''Curse of the Crystal Eye'' naturally uses the phrase to open the 40 Thieves' cave, along with the titular huge diamond.

The fact that it sounds an awful lot like [[OpenSaysMe "Open Says-A-Me"]] is a coincidence: the phrase is directly translated from Arabic "Iftaḥ yā Simsim", and the pun doesn't work. The use of "Sesame" ("Simsim" in Arabic) just happens to be a random word, which makes sense; [[ThePasswordIsAlwaysSwordfish why would you make the magic words to a secret chamber of riches something which anyone could figure out?]] [[note]]While in-universe the password seems randomly chosen, this word was probably used by Real Life oral-tradition storytellers because of a certain cultural understanding: many secret or special treasures are guarded by, or called, "sesame" in Middle Eastern stories because the sesame seed would be well known to most people in the area, and it has a passing resemblance to the shape of female genitalia, something usually hidden, treasured, and protected. By using a colorful or well-known metaphor that implies the intended meaning (this sort of thing is known as a "kenning" among Germanic peoples), one can bypass (some) censors and improve memory retention of the story's details.[[/note]]

The fact that it sounds an awful lot like [[OpenSaysMe "Open Says-A-Me"]] is a coincidence: the phrase is directly translated from Arabic "Iftaḥ yā Simsim", and the pun doesn't work. The use of "Sesame" ("Simsim" in Arabic) just happens to be a random word, which makes sense; [[ThePasswordIsAlwaysSwordfish why would you make the magic words to a secret chamber of riches something which anyone could figure out?]]

* The name of this trope comes from the tales of "Literature/AliBabaAndTheFortyThieves", where the 40 Thieves hide their stolen loot in a cave. The entrance uses a rock that moves only when you say, "Open Sesame" (Ali Baba follows them there). [[note]]While in-universe the password seems randomly chosen, this word was probably used by Real Life oral-tradition storytellers because of a certain cultural understanding: many secret or special treasures are guarded by, or called, "sesame" in Middle Eastern stories because the sesame seed would be well known to most people in the area, and it has a passing resemblance to the shape of female genitalia, something usually hidden, treasured, and protected. By using a colorful or well-known metaphor that implies the intended meaning (this sort of thing is known as a "kenning" among Germanic peoples), one can bypass (some) censors and improve memory retention of the story's details.[[/note]]

* The name of this trope comes from the tales of "Literature/AliBabaAndTheFortyThieves", where the 40 Thieves hide their stolen loot in a cave. The entrance uses a rock that moves only when you say, "Open Sesame" (Ali Baba follows them there).

-->'''Jake''': [[ComicallyMissingThePoint Hey,]] [[CorrelationCausationGag it works!]]

* In Film/TheLordOfTheRings, when the Fellowship tries to enter Moria through the enchanted gate that's inscribed "Speak friend and enter". [[SpeakFriendAndEnter Which actually TELLS you what to say.]]

* In ''Disney/AladdinAndTheKingOfThieves'', this is naturally the way to open up the entrance to the Forty Thieves' lair. [[PartingTheSea The ocean parts and a stone road running out to a large offshore rock formation forms]]. And then a crack opens in the rock formation, leading to the lair.

* In ''Disney/TheRescuersDownUnder'', when Bernard, Bianca and Jake reach [=McLeach=]'s hideout where he's keeping Cody, Bernard and Bianca start digging under the door to get in while Jake sarcastically says "Have you tried 'Open Sesame'. At that moment, [=McLeach=] opened the door and the three rodents were raised into the air on it.

-->'''Jake''': [[ComicallyMissingThePoint Hey,]] [[CorrelationCasuationGag it works!]]

-->'''Jake''': [[ComicallyMissingThePoint Hey, it works!]]

* In ''Disney/AladdinAndTheKingOfThieves'', this is naturally the way to open up the entrance to the Forty Thieves' lair. The ocean parts and a stone road running out to a large offshore rock formation forms. And then a crack opens in the rock formation, leading to the lair.

* In Film/TheLordOfTheRings, when the Fellowship tries to enter Moria through the enchanted gate.

* In ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'', the door to the mines of Moria has one of these, with the inscription, "SpeakFriendAndEnter".

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%%* Occurrs in ''Series/{{Charmed}}'', like [[FantasyKitchenSink many other magical tropes]]. %% In which episode?