Ricardo Diaz: Eject! PLASTIC CRAP! You doing this to me? Who do you think you are, you plastic piece of SHIT? Aaarrgh! [grabs a pistol and shoots the VCR twice] SCREW YOU! [notices Tommy walking into the room] It eats my favorite El Burro movie, it die! What else could I do?
Tommy Vercetti: It's probably not plugged in.
Diaz: What? [takes another look at the VCR, and sure enough, it's not plugged in] Damn — no matter, I can buy a hundred more.
Tommy Vercetti: It's probably not plugged in.
Diaz: What? [takes another look at the VCR, and sure enough, it's not plugged in] Damn — no matter, I can buy a hundred more.
We all have these moments where we believe something we try to turn on won't work and forget that it has to connect to the socket in order for it to activate. This is usually Played for Laughs, as the humor comes from a character not paying attention to the setup of the device, or getting so angry that they end up destroying the device for real this time, thus their reaction to it was All for Nothing.
Of course, this doesn't literally have to involve plugs as examples. Batteries activate the same way, and a character can sometimes discover later (sometimes too late) that the device simply had no batteries inserted to begin with.
At times, this is also used as a valuable learning experience to actually pay attention when activating the device, because if you don't actually discern it meticulously, you might actually end up breaking it while it would have still worked. No-one likes wasting money on something they thought was broken or their overreaction over nothing. It's common sense to check to make sure the device is properly set up for activation. There's a reason that virtually every tech support and IT department's first response to "it's not working" is to tell the caller to make sure that everything is plugged in.
Somewhat related to Had the Silly Thing in Reverse, in which an object starts working backwards due to the device's activation being somehow inverted. Also compare to Cut the Juice, where a device is deliberately unplugged to prevent a machine from causing a certain amount of damage. Contrast Is This Thing Still On?, where a device is set on without the character knowing, and It Won't Turn Off, where the device needs to be turned off. See also Achilles' Power Cord.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- A variation is exploited for a Deadly Game in Real Account. Some players forget to charge their mobile phones the night before a new game begins. In a blatant shout-out to Pokémon GO, they instantly die the moment their phones run out of charge.
Comedy
- Suzy Eddie Izzard: "Glorious" features a sketch on struggling to get a printer to work.
"I've chosen the printer port, which is the same as the fax modem port which confuses the fuck out of me. Yes, I've chosen A4 paper instead of toilet paper, yeah I know that. I've chosen the picture of the dog standing straight up instead of the dog lying on its side, gotta call the taxidermist how to go with it— what the fuck! It's five in the morning! There's something definitely wrong with the-! There's an on switch on the printer? Is there?"
Fan Works
- Dungeon Keeper Ami: In "Equipment Test", one instance of the titular equipment, initially doesn't work due to incorrect plugging and is fixed when that's fixed:
One of the electrical cables going into the side of the capsule wasn’t plugged in properly and hissed from time to time as it threw sparks. No wonder it wasn’t working if it wasn’t getting power.
- Project Sunflower: In the original story, Erin had a television and a home media box set up in a room in Canterlot Castle as a gift for Twilight and her friends. In the "Erin in Ponyville" arc of Sunflower: Side Projects, it's since been moved to Twilight's home in Ponyville, but Twilight admits that she hasn't been able to get it to work, despite following all the directions she was given. When Erin checks it out, she quickly finds the problem — Twilight hadn't plugged the power cable into the TV all the way, which Twilight is quite embarrassed to find, having been sure she checked it.
- Spider-Ninja: Donatello's first call as a remote tech support worker is from a customer who states that their new Stark-brand laptop isn't turning on. After half an hour of back-and-forth with no progress whatsoever, Donnie finally learns that the customer didn't know they had to plug the device in first. The customer, to their credit, gets very sheepish when they learn this, and grows even more sheepish after they plug it in and it starts working. Donnie ends up giving a short, frustrated scream when the call is over. The scene then cuts to reveal that the caller was Steve Rogers, who's getting teased by Tony for needing tech support simply to turn on a laptop.
Films — Live-Action
- Invoked in Airplane!; as the plane is about to land on the runway in Chicago, the lights on the runway suddenly go out. As the protagonists start panicking and wondering what to do, the camera cuts to resident Cloudcuckoolander Johnny in the control tower, holding an unplugged power cord. He looks at the camera and says "Just kidding!" with a malicious giggle before plugging it back in and turning all the lights back on.
- Bridget Jones: In the first film, Bridget stands at a microphone to make a speech at a book launch. After tapping and blowing on the microphone, and deciding it is not working, she shouts "Oi!" to get the crowd's attention, and bellows a long and rambling speech, before introducing Mr. Fitzherbert. He approaches the microphone saying "I'll just switch this on", which he does, with Feedback Rule confirming it is working.
- Casino Royale (2006): Played for drama. Bond is poisoned by Le Chiffre and runs out to his MI6-issued car to receive instructions from the techs in London. He attaches a defibrillator to his chest and tries to use it to restart his heart, but it fails even as the techs yell at him to push the button to activate it. Then he notices he pulled out a critical connector and slumps over and passes out. Fortunately, Vesper shows up to plug it in and rescue him.
Live-Action TV
- The Brittas Empire: In "Set in Concrete", Graham tries to use a modified mass-spectrometer that is connected to a personal computer to see if the people using the leisure centre are suffering from Sick Building Syndrome or not. After Brittas confirms to him that it's plugged in, he expresses confusion as to why he isn't getting anything from the device... at which point, Brittas asks if he would like Colin to switch it on for him.
- The Crystal Maze: In the second series, a very complicated game involves placing lots of "megabytes" boxes in holes. One contestant places all the boxes correctly, but fails to notice that he also has to put a giant plug into a socket.
- The IT Crowd: The IT department always answers their phones with "Hello, IT. Have you tried turning it off and on again?" If the call continues past that, their next question is "Is it plugged in?", suggesting this trope.
- Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: In "The Alien Rangers of Aquitar", the Command Center is out of power after the Earth is sent back in time and Alpha and Zordon are desperate to figure out what's wrong. Alpha soon discovers that the reason is that the day they were sent back to was Spring cleaning day and Alpha had unplugged the equipment so he could use the vacuum.
Zordon: I don't believe this. All this time our power outage is due not to a sinister force, but to a common household appliance?
- Mr. Bean: When Mr. Bean buys a television in "Mr. Bean Goes to Town", he has no idea how to use it. After putting the TV the wrong way round on the table and wondering where the screen is, he turns it round and switches it on; nothing happens. He then discovers that the plug was not actually connected to the set (at a time when it was normal for appliances to be sold without a fitted plug). He then jams the wires into the plug, and somehow, this makes the television switch on. The rest of the sketch is Mr. Bean trying all sorts of inventive ways to actually get a picture, including removing his clothes.
- In the first episode of The Thin Blue Line, Inspector Grim is furiously trying to make his computer work when Kray advises him to "integrate your power supply at source." When Grim doesn't understand, he clarifies: "Plug it in."
- A Touch of Frost: In the Benefit of a Doubt two-parter, a series of deaths at a hospital is at first thought to be due to medical negligence, but by chance Frost is able to notice that it's in fact a tragic case of one of the cleaners habitually removing the plug to the patients life support machine to plug in her hoover.
Video Games
- In Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Diaz is frustrated that his favorite movie won't play in his VCR and ends up shooting said device in a fit of pique. It's only at that point that Tommy points out to Diaz that the VCR was simply not plugged in.
- In King's Quest VII: The Princeless Bride, the MacGuffin capable of defeating Malicia needs to be plugged in to charge first, or it'll be useless.
- One level of No One Lives Forever has Cate infiltrate a space station. In one room, she walks past two scientists discussing a meteor shower that's about to occur and destroy the station. One of them says that their main piece of equipment can't detect the shower. They continue to discuss until one says that the piece of equipment can't detect the meteor shower because it's not plugged in. The level ends with the meteor shower striking and destroying the space station.
- Reksio and the Pirate Treasure: When Reksio tries to use a cannon in a spaceship, it doesn't work. After that Narrator laments that they will never guess what will turn on this machine... until you find plug for connecting to a socket.
- Stay Tooned!: In some paths of the game, Floor 5 will be blocked off by Hank, Frank's brother who is struggling to get his vacuum cleaner to work. It is revealed that the vacuum isn't plugged in, and you can find the plug near the pay phone on Floor 1. Clicking on the plug will plug it in and grant you access to Floor 5.
Websites
- Not Always Right: Some
customers don't understand that laptop computers can only be used for so long before they need to be plugged in and recharged.
- RinkWorks Computer Stupidities has a page on power. Examples include having the power cord in hand but unsure if that's the problem, plugging the power strip into itself, thinking that the computer has been upgraded to not require a power cord after it was returned from the repair centre, and so on.
Web Videos
- Arby 'n' the Chief: In "Terminal," when The Arbiter goes to turn on the Xbox, it wouldn't power on but then he finds its extension cord unplugged, so he plugs it back in. In the next episode, "Heat", it's later revealed that this was deliberately done by Master Chief because he wanted to scare Cortana by putting her in the oven. When she isn't scared, he turns the oven switch on, thinking the oven was unplugged (since both it and the Xbox share the same extension cord) and nothing would happen. Instead, she burned to pieces.
- Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog: Not the show itself, but in the Emmy Awards video, Dr. Horrible is taking over the awards ceremony, only to be interrupted by Captain Hammer. It ends when Captain Hammer points to a flashing "dead battery" signal and Dr. Horrible realizes he left the widget that took over the awards ceremony signal unplugged.
- Geek Remix: In the duo's playthrough of SOMA, preparing the DUNBAT for the descent to the Abyss hits a snag when they realize that Catherine didn't tell them how they were supposed to activate it. Consequently, Mari spends the next few seconds fruitlessly hammering buttons on the control panel, getting more and more frustrated... until Stacy points out that the panel hasn't been plugged in. Cue hysterical laughter from Mari.
- Jack Vale Films: In one of his "Nonsense" prank videos, where he goes around spouting Non Sequiturs, one of his nonsense phrases is "If the clicker doesn't work, you put in batteries." A Mall Santa joins in, adding "If the TV doesn't work, plug it in."
Western Animation
- Aqua Teen Hunger Force: Invoked in the episode "Fry Legs"; Frylock becomes obsessively in love with a repairwoman and deliberately unplugs his computer, then pretends it isn't working to have her come over and fix it by plugging it back in, and has done it over ten times.
- Bluey (2018): In the short "Muffin Unboxing", Muffin and her father Stripe get a new toy dump truck that they're reviewing online. Both of them think the toy might be broken, but it turns out that it just doesn't have batteries put in.
- Bumble: In one episode, Peek spends a lot of time trying and failing to fix his toy car, only to find out that it was never broken in the first place and just had dead batteries.
- Dexter's Laboratory has the theme song where towards the end, Dexter uses a remote control button to light up the cartoon's title, only for it to not work. After so many presses, it's later revealed that Dee Dee has the device unplugged, and plugs it into the socket, stunning Dexter as the title's light flashes in front of him.
- The Fairly OddParents!: In "Hard Copy", Timmy uses a magic photocopier to get a Flipsy (a toy puppy that's supposed to jump up and flip), only to get annoyed at the fact it seems to do zilch. He uses the same photocopier to bring Darth Vader Expy Dark Laser to life, who later becomes enamored with Flipsy after he turns on the power switch Timmy somehow completely failed to notice.
- The Jimmy Timmy Power Hour: Near the end of the first special, Jimmy rushes to repair the damages Crocker has done to the Big Wand, and eventually asks himself why it isn't working while holding the wire he's hooked up to the Wand to turn it back on. The camera pans to show said wire was never plugged into the nearby outlet to begin with as the sole reason why the Wand hasn't reactivated.
Jimmy: [nervous laugh] I knew it wasn't plugged in.
- The Looney Tunes Show: In the "Laser Beam" Merrie Melodies music video (part of "Bobcats on Three!"), Marvin the Martian sings a sad song about his laser beam when it refuses to start up. At the end of the song, it is revealed that all he needed to do to get it to work was plug it in.
- Mickey Mouse: In "Potatoland", Mickey and Donald attempt to put on a show for Goofy with an animatronic Abraham Lincoln potato. When it doesn't do anything, Mickey has Donald sneak behind it and use it as a puppet. Mickey finds the animatronic’s unplugged cord and plugs it in as Donald is puppeteering, which somehow leads to it exploding and Donald being electrocuted.
- Peppa Pig: In "The Electric Car", George's toy car stops working, and the kids think it's broken, but Mummy Pig reveals that its batteries are simply flat. Later, the eponymous electric car stops, and Daddy Pig thinks it's broken. Peppa, remembering the toy car, asks, "Does it need new batteries?" It does have flat batteries, but they need charging, not replacing.
- Phineas and Ferb:
- In "Unfair Science Fair", Phineas and Ferb help Baljeet build a portal to Mars for the titular fair, and his teacher, Mr. McGillicuddy, is so impressed that he decides to show the judges. Doofenshmirtz removing a plug to get an outlet free for his own project just happens to be the plug for the portal, meaning it doesn't work when the judges arrive. Mr. McGillicuddy keeps tinkering with the portal's dials in an effort to get it to work again before he notices it's simply unplugged. However, his earlier tinkering, mixed with how the first free outlet he found was a high-voltage one, causes the reactivated portal to implode in on itself.
- In "Agent Doof", Doofenshmirtz claims to have had an epiphany and given up evil after his latest invention, the Babe-inator, failed to activate. Norm later finds out it was unplugged and plugs it in, causing the -inator to activate and turn Phineas and Ferb into babies.
- In "Last Day of Summer", Doofenshmirtz rebuilds his -inator to fix the time stream, however Perry notices it wasn't plugged in but decides not to tell him this; Candace fixed the time stream using the original -inator.
- Rolie Polie Olie: In one episode, the Polie family becomes worried when Chili the refrigerator appears to be “sick” and stops working. They try several ways to help him cool down and recover, even giving him “medicine”. Eventually, Percy discovers the real problem—the refrigerator’s power cord was unplugged. Once it’s plugged back in, Chili immediately starts working again.
- Rugrats:
- In the series' first episode "Tommy's First Birthday", Stu invents a remote controlled flying saucer called the Hoverama and gives it to Tommy as a birthday present. When he tries to demonstrate how it works to his friends and family, it does nothing. He then looks in the remote's battery compartment and finds out that he forgot to put the batteries in it. He's unable to do so since he can't find them, but near the end, Chuckie reveals he has a pair of batteries and puts them in the remote to turn on the Hoverama so it can help Tommy and Angelica get a can of dog food down from a high shelf (as Tommy believes eating dog food will turn him and his friends into dogs).
- In the episode "Spike vs. Fluffy", when Stu shows Drew and Didi his homemade coffee maker, he fails to get it to work after so many times. Drew then points out that the problem could be the fact that Stu forgot to plug it in.
- Sesame Street: An animated sketch has a group of monsters invent a cookie containulator, a machine that puts cookies into cookie jars. Unfortunately, when Uncle Frankie tests the machine, it does nothing, which upsets him. Mummy Lou then tells him not to give up, and suggests checking Uncle Wolfie's feet. There, Uncle Wolfie discovers the machine's plug around his feet. He plugs it in, and the machine turns on. Unfortunately, instead of putting cookies in the jar, it tosses them. Mummy Lou then decides that the machine works better as a ring toss machine than as a cookie containulator.
- Time Squad: In "Cabin Fever", the trio goes through a long spell without any new missions to the past (causing Larry and Tuddrussel to go a little crazy) until it's revealed at the end that there were no new mission alerts because Tuddrussel unplugged the main computer to charge his electric toothbrush.
- VeggieTales: In the segment "The Gourds Must Be Crazy" of Are You My Neighbor?, a spaceship dubbed the U.S.S. Applepies is unable to move because it has no power, putting it in danger of being struck by a meteor made of popcorn. After the gourds stop the meteor by eating it, Jerry finds a plug lying around. When he plugs it in, power is restored to the ship.