A vehicle (be it a car, a motorcycle, a bike, a truck, or whatever) is a way of life. It's not just a place to get you from point A to point B, but it's your ticket to freedom, independence and/or to make a statement. It's essentially your baby and an extension of yourself.
Unfortunately, sometimes said car could be out of commission due to an accident, being stolen, bad weather, an illness/injury of the driver, or what have you, and you have to use an alternative to get you where you're going and you may not have the proper funds or access to a rental car. What to do? Use a different vehicle instead; size, practicality, or efficiency be damned!
Using this is almost always going to backfire and is more likely than not to be Played for Laughs. Case in point: you don't have a car for a date (or the ability to drive, for some reason)? Why not use a bike, a bus, or a vehicle you created yourself to do it! And if a Chase Scene starts, it's time for the Unconventional Vehicle Chase!
Related to The Alleged Car, What a Piece of Junk, Hummer Dinger, and Just Plane Wrong. Contrast with Cool Car. Keep in mind that we don't even need to see the actual "vehicle" in person; rule of funny can still qualify if the implication or discussion is good enough.
Examples:
open/close all folders
Advertising
- There are a couple GEICO ads that have this.
- One ad involves a man hitching a ride to work on a truck full of chickens when his car is out of commission, getting feathers all over him in the process.
- Another ad has people in a bustling city riding donkeys in order to get around instead of cars, with one woman having trouble getting her own donkey to move.
- Another ad has a man leave his house with magnets attached to himself. He stands on the sidewalk and waits until a car passes by, and when the magnets become attracted to the metal, he is pulled to the car and is plastered to the back. Like the rest of the ads, it's meant to represent how not having your own car to get to work means you have to bum a ride using unconventional means.
- Another ad had a woman with one shoe running in the street while carrying a cup of coffee and a horn with a bumper sticker on her butt going to pick up her daughter from school, all while acting like she has her car with her, even obeying traffic laws and pulling up curbside behind other cars. When the girl and a friend come outside and the friend spots the woman and asks if that's her mother, she quickly says no and runs in the opposite direction.
- Another ad has a man using a child's pedal bike to drive to work, having lost his previous coverage.
- An Allstate Insurance ad that airs during the football season has Mayhem showing up with half his head shaved, a sign draped across his neck, and pedaling down the main street of a city on a teeny toddler trike. Why? He lost a sports bet.
Anime & Manga
- At one point in Lupin III: Dragon of Doom, Lupin, Jigen, and Fujiko escape from Zenigata and his police forces in a duck-shaped paddle boat. Subverted in that Lupin had souped up the boat with a motor jet.
- The Clip Show "Phantasm" from Super Dimension Fortress Macross has a sequence where Hikaru, during a coma dream, is trying to rescue Minmay from Vrlitwhai and crashes a number of Valkyries (represented by clips of him doing that previously). Finally, as a last-ditch attempt to save her, he takes a bicyclenote into SPACE... and manages to crash it. Misa mocks him mercilessly over the ship's PA for that one.
- Pokémon: The Original Series: The fourth episode of the anime has Team Rocket spying on Ash, Misty, and Pikachu to kidnap the latter and using a lightweight cardboard "tank" to both provide cover and be inconspicuous. Unfortunately for them, the "tank" ends up being eaten by some nearby Weedle, to their shock and chagrin.
Comic Books
- The Beano: In one Dennis the Menace strip, Dennis's father is running late for a doctor's appointment only to discover his car has flat tires (due to Dennis stealing the air for his football), thus Dennis offers to take him in his soapbox Go-kart, which he reluctantly accepts. The ride turns out to be an utterly nerve-racking experience with him almost immediately realising what a terrible idea it was, "I could live to regret this...if I survive", involving Dennis driving through a hedge, a fence with lose planks and a massive puddle leaving him drenched. To add insult to injury it turns out he's absolutely fine, the doctor just feels he's a bit stressed, which causes him to utterly lose it. The story was adapted for The Beano Video with a few slight differences (in this version it's to check up dads sprained wrist which is why he can't drive), only for it to end far worse for him as whilst his wrist is fine, the rest of his body is now in bandages due to Dennis accidentally throwing him out of the cart and running him over.
- Les Innommables: Gets a lampshade at the end of the Roswell arc, when the heroes are looking for a way back to China. Tony complains that Tim managed to find a functional seaplane in a top-secret base in the middle of the desert.
Comic Strips
- Zits: Jeremy, Pierce, and Hector accidentally enter a funeral procession
while driving Jeremy's old hippie van with an unsecured couch and giant clown head on top. And then the couch and clown head fall off while they're still in the procession.
Films — Animation
- Toy Story 2: In the ending, the toys are shown to have gotten back to Andy's house from the airport by driving an airport luggage cart, leaving the neighbors confused about what it's doing in their driveway the next morning.
Films — Live-Action
- Babe: Pig in the City: Esme and the Landlady search the city for Babe and the missing animals by riding a two-seated bike (which belonged to the Landlady's uncle Fugly who worked as a clown) on the freeway of Metropolis, which is crowded by automobiles. They seem to run out of steam midway through their trip and cling to the back of an ambulance to their destination.
- The beginning of A Bridge Too Far depicts German soldiers in retreat through the Netherlands during "Dolle Dinsdag" (Mad Tuesday) riding on bicycles, horses, and even a fire truck; the book the film was based on noted that in addition to these vehicles, other German soldiers used vehicles ranging from a hearse to children's scooters.s
- Charlie's Angels (2000): After Dylan is tricked by her date and supposedly shot out of a window to her death, she falls and stumbles down a hill and into the backyard of two young boys playing in their house. As she (wearing nothing but an inflatable tube) asks the shocked boys for help, she is then seen riding a child-sized dirt bike to meet up with Alex and Natalie and wearing an ill-fitting T-shirt and jeans, to the other girls' perplexity.
- In Death Proof, Stuntman Mike gives a girl, Pam, a ride home. Although the car features a passenger seat that has no seatbelt, an unsteady chair, is boxed in from the driver's side, can't be opened from the inside and the hood has a skull and crossbones on it, she sees no harm in catching a ride in it. The knowing smirk that he gives to the audience before getting in only mirrors what we were already thinking.
- The Fate of the Furious: The movie's big raid takes place in a frozen bay in Russia. While most of the crew choose sturdy vehicles with snow tires capable of driving on the ice, Roman chooses a Lamborghini with slick racing tires. Not only does he get called out on it, but the lack of grip immediately backfires on him as he's eventually forced to give up the car during the ensuing chase.
- Good Morning, Vietnam: Edward Garlick is tasked with keeping an eye on Adrian Cronauer. When Adrian grabs a bicycle to chase down a woman he finds attractive, Edward grabs the only other available means of transportation...a bike with no tires, and goes wobbling down the street after him. He later says that a truck passed within inches of his nose, which caused his life to pass before his eyes.
- The Goonies When the kids run off and Brand has to follow them, he suddenly finds himself without transportation. He finds this small little girl with a bright pink, totally "princess stage" bike and hijacks it from her to go follow his brother and friends. A very manly jock teenager...on a pretty pink princess bike three sizes too small.
- The Mummy Returns: Jonathan and Alex had to find alternative transportation because they couldn't use Rick's car - and Rick is absolutely incredulous about their alternative choice:
Rick: A double-decker bus?!
- My Best Friend's Wedding: After Kimberly catches Julianne kissing Michael on their wedding day and runs off, whereas Kim and Michael drive off in their cars (with him in pursuit of her), Julianne, who has no car of her own, tries to unsuccessfully steal a random guests' car before locating an unlocked bread truck to chase after Michael.
Literature
- Animorphs: Marco complains that using beaver morphs to build a dam and flood a Yeerk attack force is beneath them using this analogy.
[...] going beaver to save an entire colony of aliens is like putting James Bond behind the wheel of a minivan. With a bumper sticker that says, "World's Greatest Mom."
- Because he's a Walking Techbane that causes anything with a microchip to sputter, Harry Dresden must rely on a '70s Volkswagon Beetle as his personal transport. Not only is the Beetle very undignified for the wizard protector of Chicago, it's been through multiple extensive repairs due to Harry's adventures, and the car is comically small for someone his height.
- After a monster finally smashes the Beetle beyond repair in Changes, Mab gives Harry a ridiculously large car, a Cadillac hearse from the 1950s that Harry dubs "The Munstermobile".
- Downplayed in the John Putnam Thatcher novel Murder To Go. At the end of the novel, the murderer tries to make a run for it only to crash their stolen getaway car into the Sloan limo Thatcher was using. Thatcher and the two couples at the head of "Chicken Tonight" are now stranded until repairs can be made. A local franchiser offers to let the group wait out the emergency repairs at their store and sends a gaudy "Chicken Tonight" delivery truck to pick the five up.
Live-Action TV
- Arrested Development: After the Bluths went bankrupt, Michael's only vehicle was a stair-car that the family had previously used to get into and out of their private jet (which they had lost in the bankruptcy).
- Better Call Saul: Daniel buys a flashy yellow Hummer with a Hot Paint Job using the money from his illegal drug dealing. Not only is it laughably conspicuous when he drives to drug deals (Mike refuses to ride in it), but it also attracts unwanted police attention when they recognize it as a sign of Suspicious Spending.
- The Brittas Empire: According to "An Inspector Calls", Helen was always asking about taking the car and having to book it out on the kitchen chart, so Brittas decides that the appropriate birthday gift would be... a small, tacky-looking moped. Helen is so horrified about the gift that she plans to leave Brittas until being convinced otherwise.
- Hold the Sunset: Following their marriage breaking down, the dim-witted Rodger absent-mindedly sells his wife's car to buy a scooter having always wanted one in "Birthday", leaving Wendy exasperated about how she's supposed to pick up the twins from school on a scooter. To solve matters in "The Burgulary" Rodger ends up buying her a new car from a shady individual far cheaper than it should have been worth (so he can keep the scooter), only for it to turn out it was actually stolen and they both get arrested.
- Married... with Children:
- When Bud has a date and Al suggests that he take a bus, the former sarcastically says, "Oh, yeah, Dad. I'll sure look cool picking the date up on the ol' bus!"
- Another episode has Peg spending some hidden money that Al was saving to buy a new car to replace his old Dodge, so he's forced to "drive" various junkers that he has to push in order to get around in.
- M*A*S*H: In "Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen", a shortage of vehicles means that the aristocratic Major Winchester ends up leaving the camp in a garbage truck. Charles, at least, can appreciate the irony:
Sergeant Luther Rizzo: Major. I hope you don't mind leaving in a garbage truck, but it's the last vehicle I got.
Maj. Winchester: Not at all - what better way to leave a garbage dump. - Psych: The Season 5 episode "Shawn and Gus in Drag (Racing)" has Shawn borrow his dad's car in order to participate in a drag race for a case; it's an old, beaten-up pickup that Shawn has outfitted with Nitrous, accidentally cutting the brake lines in the process. They end up losing the race but the sheer balls that action took end up getting Shawn and Gus cred with the street racing ring.
- Saved by the Bell:
- In the Christmas Episode when the gang is looking for their friend of the week Laura who has run away and the suggestion that they split up, Screech asks Lisa to come with him to look. When she protests that he has no car, he joyfully proclaims "I have a bus pass!", to her obvious annoyance.
- In "Driver's Education", a jealous Zack has an Imagine Spot where he spies Slater and Kelly snuggling in his car at a drive-in movie while he has Screech on the back of his bike.
- "The Friendship Business" has the gang and their fellow students trying to come up with a marketable product for business class. When one group tries to present a collapsible cardboard surfboard that makes it easy to carry to the beach, Slater counters that if you try to swim on cardboard, it'll sink.
- Top Gear (UK): In the Vietnam special, the presenters are told that should their chosen bikes break down, they will be made to use a substitute vehicle which is painted in the stars and stripes, and blaring "Born in the USA" by Bruce Springsteen ("The Star-Spangled Banner" in re-runs). Noting just how inappropriate driving such a mode of transport would be, May, Clarkson, and Hammond are extra incentivized to keep their bikes running.
Magazines
- An issue of MAD making fun of OnStar has a man whose car is stolen contact the company. While GM isn't able to locate it, they do hone in on a tagged deer, which the man rides to work instead.
Music
- In the music video of New Edition's "Hit Me Off", while each member is being chased by the FBI and the CIA, Mike is seen riding on a child-size bicycle to escape a helicopter (and even pops a wheelie at one point)!
Video Games
- Downplayed in Grand Theft Auto V: If the player recruits Karim as the Getaway Driver during the jewellery store heist, He'll acquire some expensive luxury motorcycles as the getaway vehicles. They become Awesome, but Impractical when the crew escape the scene through the city sewers, and the other crew members complain and ask him why he didn't get something more practical, like some dirtbikes.
- In the beginning of LEGO City Undercover when Chief Dunby is giving the force a recap of the wanted criminal Rex Fury, he mentions that Rex was previously arrested after a painfully slow police chase where he chose a lawnmower as an escape vehicle, which clogged a major freeway at near-walking speed.
Webcomics
- Concerned: While Gordon Frohman is making his way to Nova Prospekt, he encounters the vehicles that will be used by Gordon Freeman a few weeks later, but is denied the chance to use them. When coming across the high-speed airboat, he is convinced instead to take a rusty old rowboat — with a shovel for an oar — for his long journey up the polluted, radioactive canals. Later, when he needs a vehicle for his even longer journey up the coast, he's told he can't take the dune buggy (as it's still being repaired) and, based on past experiences, assumes the only option is a nearby rusty bike; he pedals off before anyone can explain that they actually have several cars in much better condition that he could have taken instead.
Western Animation
- Archer A downplayed example: When Archer is suspected of being a double agent because of Katya's influence, Krieger drives the ISIS crew to Archer's apartment for a showdown in his Rush customized van. Malory takes a veiled potshot at being seen in said van, while Lana remarks that the window tint is illegal and therefore it is "rolling probable cause".
- Doug:
- One episode has an Imagine Spot where Doug, who doesn't have a means of transportation for a date with Patti due to Judy failing to pass her road test, is riding her on his bike to an amusement park in the rain. After he accidentally knocks her off the bike and into the mud, Beebe comes by in a limo and gives her a ride home, as they both laugh at him as they drive away.
- Another episode has Doug, who spent all his money on arcade games, deciding to make Patti a birthday gift. In two different Imagine Spots, he builds her a plane to fly in and a (supposed) towel rack that they also try to "fly" only to plummet to their deaths instead.
- Family Guy: In "The Cleveland-Loretta Quagmire", Peter goes to visit his neighbour Quagmire, and decides to take the Petercopter, a helicopter shaped like his own head, which he ends up crashing in the front yard of his other neighbour Joe. Later in the same episode, he also crashes the Hindenpeter, a zeppelin with his face painted onto the front, into Joe's house, causing Joe to exclaim exasperatedly "HOW CAN YOU AFFORD THESE THINGS?!"
- In the Miraculous Ladybug episode "Captain Hardrock", Officer Roger is so determined to bring the Liberty to justice for its many infractions that he resorts to chasing after the akumatized ship in a range of aquatic vehicles, including a police boat, a paddleboat, and finally, a rubber ducky inflatable tube.
- In The Powerpuff Girls (1998) episode "Super Zeroes", after becoming engrossed in their separate favorite comic books, the girls decide to branch out as their own individual superhero based on said book. Bubbles' choice is a bunny rabbit whose mode of transportation is a pogo stick, which understandably is comparably slow to use, requires a lot of physical energy on her part, and doesn't allow her to get to the relevant crisis on time.
- Homer gets this quite a few times on The Simpsons:
- In "Duffless" after getting his license suspended temporarily for drunk driving, he is seen riding Lisa's bicycle (complete with a basket) to work. This ends up subverted since he ends up liking the bell on it and riding with Marge sitting on the handlebars and singing "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on my Head".
- This also happens twice in "The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson". After Homer loses his car, he resorts to using a scooter to pick up Bart and Lisa from school and in the next scene attempts to make his own car consisting of a giant mattress, flashlights, red wagon wheels, and hand-knit seatbelts.
- In "Homer Simpson in 'Kidney Trouble'" when Homer runs away from donating his kidney to Grampa, he uses a handcar on some railroad tracks to flee. He then uses it on the street, even being mindful to parallel park between two cars.
- In "Take My Wife Sleaze" when Homer starts his own motorcycle gang, said "motorcycles" mostly consist of misplaced vehicles, including a rented moped, a girl's bicycle, and a ride-on lawnmower.
- Unrelated to Homer in "Sideshow Bob's Last Gleaming", this ends up played straight and lampshaded. Bob steals the Wright Brothers' plane to do a kamikaze attack to kill himself, Bart, and Krusty, which of course does nothing and then said plane is ultimately run over by a tank, which the driver even remarks how much of an overkill it was to use it. In an earlier scene, the Naval servicemen were using jets to catch Bob, only to surmise that it was too swift and to instead get out and walk...which had them too slow to keep up.
- In "Monty Can't Buy Me Love" when the family tires of going on a walk around the neighborhood, Bart suggests that they ride on dogs instead, jumping on the back of a random dog. Being a dog, it just runs around in a circle and quickly bucks Bart off before sprinting away.
- At the beginning of "Homer's Triple Bypass", the Cops in Springfield intro showcases the Springfield Police using a police helicopter at a drive-in movie. Aside from the gross misuse of the vehicle, it's likely that the other patrons (including them) can't even hear the movie due to its noise.
- Transformers: Prime: While on his own, Starscream loses his ability to turn into a jet due to organ theft. This results in Starscream, a giant robot, riding around on a thing that looks like a tiny floating scooter.
Real Life
- A college student with a DWI conviction used a Barbie jeep (sized for children) to drive around campus after she lost her license.