History Main / ShortCutsMakeLongDelays

[[folder:Film - Live Action]]

* In the second ''Literature/WarriorCats'' story arc, a lone cat named Purdy offers to show the traveling Clan cats a way though the city rather than having the cats waste time traveling around it. He claims the whole time that he knows where he's going, but the Clan cats know it's not the quickest route (at one point they realize they've been traveling in the ''wrong'' direction all day; they're supposed to be heading ''toward'' the sunset). It also results in Feathertail nearly getting captured by a Twoleg and Tawnypelt being bitten badly by a rat.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* Inverted in the ''Series/DoctorWho'' serial "Dragonfire"; when Ace boards the TARDIS at the end, she's miserable because she assumes the Doctor is going to take her straight home to Perivale on Earth, a place she loathes. The Doctor, however, has decided she'd make a good companion, and offers to take her home via the 'scenic route' -- which he outright promises is going to be much longer and more dangerous, but infinitely more interesting.

* ''WesternAnimation/WackyRaces'': Dick Dastardly once took a short cut that was blatantly shorter than the road he should have taken and ended up falling victim of a booby trap at a place he trespassed and the Mean Machine had to be practically rebuilt part by part. By the time Muttley finished rebuilding it, the land owner learned Dastardly tricked him to stop the other shortcut users and started shooting him. By the time he reached the finish line, he was in last, as [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption usual]], the Mean Machine had holes all over its body and it fell apart as Dastardly was about to cross the finish line.

* 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 its 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. If your GPS has choice systems, you might have cases where there is one route that is shorter in terms of miles traveled, but the travel time is longer (for instance, in the mountains, going on seasonal roads over mountain passes), while the other route, although longer in miles, turns out to be faster in time (because it uses Interstates and roads that are year-round). Your GPS also may or may not take into account the time of day and week - an Interstate might be faster if it's 3 AM and few people are on but a practical parking lot during rush hour.
* If you are a heavy user of public transportation: how many times have you experimented that what in theory was a short cut (ie, taking the subway instead of the bus) becomes the opposite courtesy of MurphysLaw?
* Storrow Drive is the major parkway through Boston, making it the fastest and most direct route to most pasts of the city, which makes it attractive for students driving moving trucks into the city each year and delivery drivers the rest of the year. To quote Wikipedia: "There are an abundance of signs giving road clearance height. Despite the signs, a truck or other large vehicle will periodically get wedged under a bridge, which causes traffic to back up for several miles. In one incident a truck full of scissors became stuck and spilled its cargo, causing over 30 cars to get flat tires. There is a 10-foot height limit for the entire parkway. Local media has taken to referring to these kinds of accidents as a truck being 'Storrowed.'"

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->''A journey of a thousand miles begins with the words "I know a shortcut!"''
-->-- '''Anonymous''', ripping off Creator/{{Laozi}}

!!Examples

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[/folder]]

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

* In ''ComicBook/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast'', Epheremelda doesn't buy into the idea that Zelda has suddenly warped from Turtle Rock to the swamplands, and recommends that they go find the map first. Link, blinded by his devotion, forges ahead and mounts of a successful rescue of...a Wizzrobe. Whoops.

* In ''WesternAnimation/IceAge'', the group takes a dangerous shortcut that isn't a shortcut at all, just so that Diego can hide the others from his clan.

* ''Film/ItsAMadMadMadMadWorld'' was one Long Delay after another. For example, Phil Silvers' character takes a shortcut on a dirt road at the advice of a local kid, only to find that the road goes through a river. He attempts to drive through anyway and loses his car.
* ''Film/TheLifeAquaticWithSteveZissou'': who '''didn't''' see disaster coming when Steve took a shortcut through [[TemptingFate Unprotected Waters]]?
* Pretty much the whole point of ''Film/RatRace'', in which six different people (often with family/sidekicks) try to be the first to get to a town in the next state. HilarityEnsues as increasingly improbable circumstances slow them down - the helicopter pilot discovers her boyfriend cheating on her and runs out of fuel in the ensuing vengeful maneuvers, a "helpful" woman provides shortcut directions to one driver that sends them over the edge of a cliff because they didn't buy a squirrel, and so on. The movie was kinda remake of ''Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World'' anyway, so that's to be expected...
* From ''Film/RoadTrip'' wherein the shortcut leads over a BrokenBridge.
-->Of course it's difficult, it's a short-cut. If it was easy it would just be "the way."

* In ''Film/HeadlessHorseman'', Seth, at Tiffany's urging, decides to take shortcut to Halloween party along a road that is not on the GPS, claiming it will knock two hours of their journey. Instead, it gets them stranded in Wormwood Ridge, a TownWithADarkSecret.

* In ''Film/TheDarwinAwards'', Burrows refuses to take the interstate highway because he considers it "too dangerous". Instead, his route along backroads causes the car to crash through a broken cattle grid and get stuck: stranding them in the middle of nowhere.
[[/folder]]

* Not so much a "long delay" as "getting involved in a secret AlienInvasion and being given powers by a dying alien," the ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' begin their adventure by taking a shortcut through a construction site one night. In one book Jake makes a DealWithTheDevil (or an alien who works for a devil-esque SufficientlyAdvancedAlien) to ''avoid'' taking the shortcut and [[spoiler: they still get involved in the invasion, only without their morphing powers and most them are killed but Earth is saved in the end]]. This is restored to the main timeline with a ResetButton where the "devil" rescinds the offer before Jake can take it.
** This trope also comes into play, albeit unintentionally, in ''The Unexpected'', one of [[ExtrudedBookProduct the later ghostwritten books]]. Stowing aboard an airplane bound for Sydney to escape the Yeerks, hijinks ensue and Cassie finds herself in the outback. The only problem is, Sydney's on the ''east coast'' of Australia, meaning that plane departing from California had no business being over the outback. Explanations of this anomaly offered after the fact are curious and unsatisfying.
* ''Literature/SardHarker'': Harker, desperate to get back to his ship before it sails, takes a short cut that leads him into a bog and several encounters with rats, stinging creatures, and other vicious wildlife and ultimately strands him miles from where he needs to be, with no chance of catching his ship, and facing a long trek through hostile terrain to get back on track. (Though when he does finally make it to his ship's next port of call, he learns that the ship was sabotaged by the villain and sank with all hands, so the long short cut almost certainly saved his life.)

* Appears and is {{lampshade|Hanging}}d in ''Series/TheTenthKingdom''. There are two roads leading to Wendell's castle, and the pair of unlikely heroes are on foot: they must choose whether to take the long and pretty path or the short and scary path. "Virginia, don't you think there's a chance that it's going ''around'' something? But... but one path has trees, and the other... argh!" They take the scary path. The fact this detour [[BecauseDestinySaysSo turns out to be necessary]] in order for Virginia to obtain the poisoned comb so that she can deal out the suitably [[HoistByHisOwnPetard hoist by her own petard]], KarmicDeath for the BigBad only makes this hew even closer to the trope. ("It's the journey that matters," and TheQuest usually requires that something very important be found or learned while the heroes are caught up in a seemingly random delay or distraction.)

* Inverted in the ''Series/DoctorWho'' serial "Dragonfire"; when Ace boards the TARDIS at the end, she's miserable because she assumes the Doctor is going to take her straight home to Perivale on Earth, a place she loathes. The Doctor, however, has decided she'd make a good companion, and offers to take her home via the 'scenic route' -- which he outright promises is going to be much longer and more dangerous, but infinitely more interesting.
* David Vincent saw ''Series/TheInvaders'' after getting lost "looking for a short cut that he never found".

* A case of SchmuckBait involving this occurs in ''VideoGame/MightAndMagic 6''. [[spoiler:In the small town in the west part of the Mire of the Damned, someone tells you about a path through the mountains that gets you to the east part (where there's the Circus, an Inn you need to get to, and a road to Freehaven) quicker. However, at one spot on this path, a ''very'' large flock of Harpy Hags (difficult monsters who can ''all'' cast Mass Curse) appears and ambushes you. (Unfortunately, even if you know about this, you ''have'' to come here and trigger the ambush to solve the Obelisk Puzzle and get the most powerful spells in the game.)]]

* Several shots in ''VideoGame/{{Pangya}}'' can get you a chance at an easy eagle or even an ''albatross'' putt if done correctly, but will lead to an OB or water hazard or a very difficult shot if you mess up. One prominent example is on Hole 15 of Blue Lagoon, Blue Water, and Blue Moon, a par 5 hole. The course is a crescent-shaped island with a smaller island in the middle. You can take the fairway and likely get par, shoot onto the island so you can get an eagle, or shoot straight from the tee to the green, either for an albatross or a ''hole-in-one''...that is, if you have the drive, favorable winds, a Power Shot bar, and the ''very steady hands'' necessary to hit across the water accurately onto the green, because landing in the water here will trigger an OB, forcing you to re-shoot with a one-stroke penalty and likely finishing with par or worse.

* In [[http://www.goldcoincomics.com/?id=73 this]] ''Webcomic/GoldCoinComics'' strip, a "shortcut" is a mountain/large hill.

* Has occurred several times in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' (most often at Homer's instigation). In fact, the page quote is from one such episode in which the family take a shortcut on a trip. They reach their destination ''much'' later than expected with an overall destroyed car sporting a wagon wheel as a spare tire, infested with farm animals, and a US Military Missile embedded into the back.
* A recurring plot element and running joke in the ''WesternAnimation/{{Rupert}} Bear'' cartoon series is that all of Bill's "short cuts" invariably lead to some sort of strange adventure, but never where they wanted to go in the first place. In one episode, the two decided to split up and make a race out of it. Naturally, this time it's Rupert taking the proper route who finds himself in a land of adventure, which implies that it's not the shortcuts that lead to adventure, it's Rupert.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'': Bender is helping a robot fraternity win a boat race and claims to know a shortcut. Ends up [[ZigZaggedTrope Zig-zagging the trope]], as the route is more dangerous but does turn out to be slightly quicker (allowing them to just barely win the race).
-->'''Gearshift:''' Hey, Bender, you sure this is a shortcut?
-->'''Bender:''' Not as sure as I was an hour ago.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Stoked}}!'': In ""Reef, Broseph and Emma's Totally Stupid Adventure", Broseph, Reef and Emma go into town for beaver tails (a local pastry), but stay too long and realize they're late for work. They try to take a shortcut through the woods, but end up lost in the woods for the day. HilarityEnsues.
* ''WesternAnimation/WackyRaces'': Dick Dastardly once took a short cut that was blatantly shorter than the road he should have taken and ended up falling victim of a booby trap at a place he trespassed and the Mean Machine had to be practically rebuilt part by part. By the time Muttley finished rebuilding it, the land owner learned Dastardly tricked him to stop the other shortcut users and started shooting him. By the time he reached the finish line, he was in last, as [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption usual]], the Mean Machine had holes all over its body and it fell apart as Dastardly was about to cross the finish line.

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtHead'' has the two miss the bus back home; rather than walk home, Butthead suggests they take a shortcut. The duo end up in a different neighborhood and end up spending an entire day just to get back to their school.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife'' episode "Road Rash" Heffer tells Rocko to take a shortcut on their motorcycle trip. They end up passing numerous landmarks including the Egyptian Pyramids, Stonehenge, a Venetian canal, Moai Statues on Easter Island, the Eiffel Tower, Rocko's house, and the Taj Mahal. Heffer says that must have saved them hours. While they were previously 500 miles from their destination, now they are only 499 miles away. Rocko asks him if he is reading the map right.

* The dreaded [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norfolk_Southern%E2%80%93Gregson_Street_Overpass "11 Foot 8 Bridge"]] in North Carolina, affectionately known as The Can Opener, for being such an unusually low bridge that vehicles collide with it roughly once a month. Countless drivers have decided to challenge it to take a shortcut, grossly underestimating how low it actually is, only for the bridge to deem them unworthy and shave the roof off of their truck instead. In October of 2019, the bridge was raised from 11'8" to 12'4" in an attempt to reduce collisions.

* Every time [[Comicbook/UsagiYojimbo Usagi Miyamoto]] takes "one of Gen's short cuts" he winds up stumbling into a dastardly plot.

->''"All right, we're here! Let us never speak of the shortcut again."''
-->-- '''Homer''', ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', "Itchy & Scratchyland"

->''"All right, we're here! [[LetUsNeverSpeakOfThisAgain Let us never speak of the shortcut again.]]"''

* In ''Film/HeadlessHorseman'', Seth, at Tiffany's urging, decides to take shortcut to Halloween party along a road that is not on the GPS, claiming it will knock two hours of their journey. Instead, it gets them stranded in Wormwood Ridge, a TownWithADarkSecret

* The dreaded [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/11_foot_8_Bridge 11 Foot 8 Bridge]], affectionately known as The Can Opener, for being such an unusually low bridge that vehicles collide with it roughly once a month. Countless drivers have decided to challenge it to take a shortcut, grossly underestimating how low it actually is, only for the bridge to deem them unworthy and shave the roof off of their truck instead.

->''"All right, we're here! Let us never speak of the shortcut again."''

* ''VideoGame/Titanfall2'': Early in the campaign, BT finds what it believes to be a shortcut through tricky terrain. Naturally, this ends with BT getting captured and Cooper having to fight his way through a massive IMC facility against hundreds of soldiers and powerful autonomous mecha to get BT back. Near the end, BT's readout includes the phrase: "Re-evaluate definition of 'shortcut'", and later the Titan snarks that "I will avoid all shortcuts" when told not to get lost.

* A case of SchmuckBait involving this occurs in ''[[Franchise/MightAndMagic Might & Magic 6]]''. [[spoiler:In the small town in the west part of the Mire of the Damned, someone tells you about a path through the mountains that gets you to the east part (where there's the Circus, an Inn you need to get to, and a road to Freehaven) quicker. However, at one spot on this path, a ''very'' large flock of Harpy Hags (difficult monsters who can ''all'' cast Mass Curse) appears and ambushes you. (Unfortunately, even if you know about this, you ''have'' to come here and trigger the ambush to solve the Obelisk Puzzle and get the most powerful spells in the game.)]]

[[folder:Anime]]

--> "I always tried to take the fastest shortcut in this Steel Ball Run, but 'the shortest route was a detour'. 'It was the detour that was our shortest path.'"

See PathOfMostResistance for a similar trope used in video games. For more travel wisdom, see RightUnderTheirNoses. Compare with DeadlyRoadTrip. Contrast RidiculouslyDifficultRoute. For similar situations not involving travel, see LaboriousLaziness.

* If you are a heavy user of public transportation: how many times have you experimented that what in theory was a short cut becomes the opposite courtesy of MurphysLaw?

* The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donner_Party Donner Party]] was a group of settlers looking to settle in California in 1846. Their decision to take an obscure and untested shortcut (instead of the longer, but more established route) turned a journey that typically took four months into a desperate, horrific ordeal that lasted over a year. The winding 'shortcut' led to the Donner Party getting [[SnowedIn trapped in the Sierra Nevada mountains during the harsh winter months]] with grossly inadequate supplies. When their food ran out (which didn't take long), they were eventually [[NoPartyLikeADonnerParty forced to resort to cannibalism]] to survive. It took four separate rescue teams to get everyone out over the course of several months.

* David Vincent saw Series/TheInvaders after getting lost "looking for a short cut that he never found".

* The dreaded [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/11_foot_8_Bridge 11 Foot 8 Bridge]], affectionately known as The Can Opener, for being such an unusually low bridge that vehicles collide with it roughly once a month. Countless drivers have decided to challenge it to take a shortcut, grossly underestimating how low it actually is, only for the bridge to deem them unworthy and shave the roof shaved off of their truck instead.

* The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donner_Party Donner Party]], were a group of settlers looking to settle in California in 1846. Their decision to take an obscure and untested shortcut (instead of the longer, but more established route) turned a journey that typically took four months into a desperate, horrific ordeal that lasted over a year. The winding 'shortcut' led to the Donner Party getting [[SnowedIn trapped in the Sierra Nevada mountains during the harsh winter months]] with grossly inadequate supplies. When their food ran out (which didn't take long), they were eventually [[NoPartyLikeADonnerParty forced to resort to cannibalism]] to survive. It took four separate rescue teams to get everyone out over the course of several months.

* The dreaded [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/11_foot_8_Bridge 11 Foot 8 Bridge]], affectionately known as The Can Opener, for being such an unusually low bridge that vehicles collide with it roughly once a month. Countless drivers have decided to challenge it to take a shortcut, grossly underestimating how low it actually is, and ended up with the roof shaved off of their truck instead.