History Main / ShortCutsMakeLongDelays

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* In ''Literature/ThePilgrimsProgress'', any straying from the path results in either getting killed or put in a deadly situation.

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->-- '''Homer''', ''TheSimpsons''

->-- '''Crow''', ''MysteryScienceTheater3000''

* ''Little Red Riding Hood'' is probably the Ur-example. She was ''told'' to stay on the path, but she just had to go and take a shortcut through the woods... and the rest is vaguely-Freudian history.

* ''TheLordOfTheRings'' is the TropeNamer (it's a Hobbit proverb quoted by Pippin). In ''The Fellowship Of The Ring'' the hobbits attempted to shorten their walk by cutting across country and ended up miles off course.

* In ''ThePilgrimsProgress'', any straying from the path results in either getting killed or put in a deadly situation.

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** In Mario Kart's case, sometimes the longer "shortcut" will have an item box to compensate people who decide to use the path.

* One of the more hilarious consequences of GPS navigation for cars. Most drivers will tend to stick to the routes they are familiar with, but when they get a GPS some will decide to take it's routing instructions because it's supposedly shorter or faster. MurphysLaw will inevitably kick in and they'll find the shorter route will have construction, recent changes to streets (such as switches to 1-way) that aren't reflected in the GPS database and other comedic impedements. Also the number of delays they will face will be directly proportional to how urgently they have to get to their destination.

* Let's face it; how many tropers here have been on a car trip, your parents took a turn and said "This is a shortcut" only for you to arrive at your destination at a longer time than had you stayed on the regular route?

* Racing games, especially ones that are not serious (''{{Burnout}}, MarioKart'') often include shortcuts that are risky and can potentially take much longer than the curves they bypass.

* In an episode of ''TwoStupidDogs'', the big man's blind and buys the dogs to use them as guide dogs. The little dog's shortcuts eventually lead him to the top of a building under construction.

All the regular characters are on a RoadTrip or some other [[TheQuest quest]]. One character suggests they take a shortcut: sure, it [[LostWorld may not be on the maps]], but he knows the route like the back of his hand. Besides, it will shave a few hours off the trip, and be all-around more interesting than the [[ScenicRoute boring old interstate]]! Persuaded, the other characters agree to take the shortcut.

* From ''Road Trip'' wherein the shortcut leads over a BrokenBridge.

* In an episode of ''TwoStupidDogs'', the big man's blind and buys the dogs to use them as guide dogs. The little dog's shortcuts eventually lead him to the top of a building under construction

* Occurred in ''SpiritedAway'' when the father suggest they take a shortcut through a forest, this is results in the family getting TrappedInAnotherWorld.

->'''''Eighth Law of Travel''': There are no shortcuts, ever - unless you are forced to take them, in which case they will be much longer and more dangerous than your original route.''
->-- {{The Grand List Of Console Role Playing Game Cliches}}, [[ConsoleRPGCliches49To72 Item 72]]

* ''{{Cars}}''.

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* A major aversion occurs in the Keeper campaign of {{Age of Wonders}}. If you can remember the way through the Underground Path, you can literally walk straight past an entire map of enemies. If you have the [[GameBreaker haste spell]] and click fast, you can complete the entire mission in under 30 seconds.
* Racing games, especially ones that are not serious (''{{Burnout}}, MarioKart'') often include shortcuts that are risky and can potentially take much longer than the curves they bypass.
* In ''BaldursGate II'' you're asked to destroy a beholder cult called the Unseeing Eye, and are informed that it's far too powerful and you have to retrieve an artifact to destroy it. This involves going to an underground city to get half of it, then through a town of undead, then through a lair of beholders, before you finally get the other half. Alternatively, you can just start killing its cultists and kill it when it shows up to stop, because the point about the Unseeing Eye is that it's a ''blind'' beholder. Which makes it less formidable than the normal beholders you had to kill to get the artifact.
** Although, [[PathOfMostResistance there's some nice loot and XP along the way.]]
* In [[{{Neopets}} Neo Quest II]], one NPC in Act II remarks: "You know the saying: the shortest distance between two points is a straight line? Well, the longest distance between two points is a shortcut." Luckily for you, the player characters are not required to take such shortcuts.

* ''Little Red Riding Hood'' is probably the ur-example. She was ''told'' to stay on the path, but she just had to go and take a shortcut through the woods... and the rest is vaguely-Freudian history.

* The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donner_Party Donner Party]], whose decision to take an obscure and untested shortcut (instead of the longer, but more established route) west to California turned a journey that typically took four months into a desperate ordeal that lasted over a year. The winding 'shortcut' led to the Donner Party getting trapped in the Sierra Nevada mountains during the harsh winter months with grossly inadequate supplies. Faced with starvation, they were eventually [[NoPartyLikeADonnerParty forced to resort to cannibilism]] to survive.

* Racing games, especially ones that are not serious (Mario Kart) often include shortcuts that are risky and can potentially take much longer than the curves they bypass.

If the proposed shortcut is described beforehand as "the {{scenic route}}", it's pretty much doomed from the start.

See PathOfMostResistance for a similar trope used in video games.

*** The Unseeing Eye has a whole host of insta-death spells that normal beholders don't get. It also doesn't use the common beholder abilities that turn them into sitting ducks versus a character with the right equipment.