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Island Help Message
- 190 statements
- 36 feature instances
- 19 referencing feature instances
| Island Help Message | type |
FeatureClass | |
| Island Help Message | label |
Island Help Message | |
| Island Help Message | page |
IslandHelpMessage | |
| Island Help Message | comment |
A character(s) stranded on a Deserted Island (or a desert) builds a message with sticks and/or stones for a passing plane to see. It usually reads "HELP", although "SOS" is common as well. Frequently parodied by the character writing a much longer message than necessary, mispelling a word, or having some other wacky problem. This is Truth in Television, as any large and apparent ground-to-air signal can attract the attention of an aerial search. Many people are unaware that the international symbol is a clear X shape. Sister Trope to Message in a Bottle. Related to Deserted Island. |
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| Island Help Message | fetched |
2024-03-20T23:01:18Z | |
| Island Help Message | parsed |
2024-03-20T23:01:18Z | |
| Island Help Message | processingComment |
Dropped link to Parody: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
| Island Help Message | processingComment |
Dropped link to PlayedForLaughs: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
| Island Help Message | processingComment |
Dropped link to parodiedtrope: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
| Island Help Message | isPartOf |
DBTropes | |
| Island Help Message / int_16712475 | type |
Island Help Message | |
| Island Help Message / int_16712475 | comment |
There's an episode of The Jetsons wherein George and the Space Cubs of Troop 54 get stranded in the wild untamed area of the moon, and Spacely's son fires off flares that read HEPL. George reads it aloud, and the kid, realizing his mistake, fires another flare that strikes out his typo and corrects the last two letters so it does say HELP when all is said and done. | |
| Island Help Message / int_16712475 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Island Help Message / int_16712475 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The Jetsons | hasFeature |
Island Help Message / int_16712475 | |
| Island Help Message / int_1c1c599 | type |
Island Help Message | |
| Island Help Message / int_1c1c599 | comment |
In Madagascar, Alex first builds a Statue of Liberty, but it burns down ("You maniac!"), and later, "HELP," but the branches from P fall, forming "HELL." | |
| Island Help Message / int_1c1c599 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Island Help Message / int_1c1c599 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Madagascar | hasFeature |
Island Help Message / int_1c1c599 | |
| Island Help Message / int_261c8d3f | type |
Island Help Message | |
| Island Help Message / int_261c8d3f | comment |
One episode of The Simpsons features a similar joke to the Futurama example mentioned above except with sharks. | |
| Island Help Message / int_261c8d3f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Island Help Message / int_261c8d3f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The Simpsons | hasFeature |
Island Help Message / int_261c8d3f | |
| Island Help Message / int_4c9e8c6 | type |
Island Help Message | |
| Island Help Message / int_4c9e8c6 | comment |
Use of Weapons. Cheradenine Zakalwe has been attacked and seriously wounded, and stumbles around apparently at random until it's revealed at the end of the chapter that he was spelling out a distress signal for the Culture spacecraft orbiting above. | |
| Island Help Message / int_4c9e8c6 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Island Help Message / int_4c9e8c6 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Use of Weapons | hasFeature |
Island Help Message / int_4c9e8c6 | |
| Island Help Message / int_569093cc | type |
Island Help Message | |
| Island Help Message / int_569093cc | comment |
In the DuckTales (2017) episode "Whatever Happened to Della Duck?", Della, trapped on the Moon, writes a lenthy SOS message in scrap, but it gets destroyed by the Moon Mite. She has just enough scrap left to turn the surviving "S" into a "$", which she thinks should get Uncle Scrooge's attention. It probably would have if the moonmite hadn't interfered. | |
| Island Help Message / int_569093cc | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Island Help Message / int_569093cc | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| DuckTales (2017) | hasFeature |
Island Help Message / int_569093cc | |
| Island Help Message / int_5755b96a | type |
Island Help Message | |
| Island Help Message / int_5755b96a | comment |
In The Order of the Stick, Elan writes a message in the desert for Girard if he scries their location: | |
| Island Help Message / int_5755b96a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Island Help Message / int_5755b96a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The Order of the Stick (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
Island Help Message / int_5755b96a | |
| Island Help Message / int_69fa7496 | type |
Island Help Message | |
| Island Help Message / int_69fa7496 | comment |
Disney Ducks Comic Universe: In one Carl Barks one-page Scrooge McDuck strip, Scrooge is stranded on a small island spells out "Help" on pieces of paper hanging on a clothesline. When help doesn't arrive, he replaces the letters with money, and suddenly, an armada of all sorts of boats (including a kayak and a submarine amongst others) appear around the island. | |
| Island Help Message / int_69fa7496 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Island Help Message / int_69fa7496 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Disney Ducks Comic Universe (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
Island Help Message / int_69fa7496 | |
| Island Help Message / int_70c7b114 | type |
Island Help Message | |
| Island Help Message / int_70c7b114 | comment |
Gilligan's Island: Upon hearing a radio broadcast that a NASA capsule is crossing the south Pacific (presumably within eyeshot of their island), the castaways try writing "SOS" in burning logs to get their attention. As usual, Gilligan does something that angers the Skipper, and he chases Gilligan across the message, rolling the logs around and distorting the message. When the astronauts fly by, they see the message: "SOL", the name of the mission leader, and assume it's a "You're awesome!" message. Skipper punished Gilligan by making him write "SOS" a zillion times on a chalkboard until the Skipper felt he had enough. | |
| Island Help Message / int_70c7b114 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Island Help Message / int_70c7b114 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Gilligan's Island | hasFeature |
Island Help Message / int_70c7b114 | |
| Island Help Message / int_77950351 | type |
Island Help Message | |
| Island Help Message / int_77950351 | comment |
Done again in 28 Weeks Later where we see American forces pressure-washing off a message on a roof which read "Alive in here!". They probably weren't. | |
| Island Help Message / int_77950351 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Island Help Message / int_77950351 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| 28 Weeks Later | hasFeature |
Island Help Message / int_77950351 | |
| Island Help Message / int_880cfa15 | type |
Island Help Message | |
| Island Help Message / int_880cfa15 | comment |
Hogan's Heroes: In one episode, Hogan tricks Klink into calling a nighttime fallout rollcall. After all are accounted for and the men are allowed to be at ease, Klink lets the POWs have a smoke. What Klink doesnt know is that the men are arranged in the form of an arrow, the glowing cigarettes showing an American bomber overhead the correct way to go for their target. | |
| Island Help Message / int_880cfa15 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Island Help Message / int_880cfa15 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Hogan's Heroes | hasFeature |
Island Help Message / int_880cfa15 | |
| Island Help Message / int_8bd2ee90 | type |
Island Help Message | |
| Island Help Message / int_8bd2ee90 | comment |
A channel bumper for I Am Weasel featured Weasel and Baboon stranded on a deserted island; Weasel gets rescue by using black and white stones to form the Cartoon Network checkerboard logo. | |
| Island Help Message / int_8bd2ee90 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Island Help Message / int_8bd2ee90 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| I Am Weasel | hasFeature |
Island Help Message / int_8bd2ee90 | |
| Island Help Message / int_8d814070 | type |
Island Help Message | |
| Island Help Message / int_8d814070 | comment |
The final M*A*S*H episode has a variant of this, when B.J. uses a bunch of rocks to tell Hawkeye "GOODBYE". | |
| Island Help Message / int_8d814070 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Island Help Message / int_8d814070 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| M*A*S*H | hasFeature |
Island Help Message / int_8d814070 | |
| Island Help Message / int_8d817ccb | type |
Island Help Message | |
| Island Help Message / int_8d817ccb | comment |
Lost: In the episode "SOS", appropriately enough, Bernard gets frustrated that the other survivors have apparently given up and accepted their fate, so he decides to build one of these signs. Bernard abandons the sign after his wife Rose reveals that being on the island has cured her terminal cancer, and if they leave, she'll die within months. | |
| Island Help Message / int_8d817ccb | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Island Help Message / int_8d817ccb | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Lost | hasFeature |
Island Help Message / int_8d817ccb | |
| Island Help Message / int_9a0cb5f4 | type |
Island Help Message | |
| Island Help Message / int_9a0cb5f4 | comment |
Bob's Burgers: Linda goes for a flying lesson in the "Seaplane!" episode and it turns out that the instructor likes to fake an emergency landing near a remote island then seduce his female students with a picnic of wine and cheese that just so happens to have. After the seaplane floats off, Linda makes a help message out of the wine bottles that he left from his previous visits. | |
| Island Help Message / int_9a0cb5f4 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Island Help Message / int_9a0cb5f4 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Bob's Burgers | hasFeature |
Island Help Message / int_9a0cb5f4 | |
| Island Help Message / int_a14e5771 | type |
Island Help Message | |
| Island Help Message / int_a14e5771 | comment |
In 28 Days Later, the survivors form the word "HELLO" from sheets and curtains on the field next to their hideout. We see it first before they finish the O. They get rescued by Finns. | |
| Island Help Message / int_a14e5771 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Island Help Message / int_a14e5771 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| 28 Days Later | hasFeature |
Island Help Message / int_a14e5771 | |
| Island Help Message / int_a183d57f | type |
Island Help Message | |
| Island Help Message / int_a183d57f | comment |
In Futurama, Bender is one rock short of forming the word "Help". Zoom out to see his message is much longer than that. In another episode, "T: The Terrestrial", Fry gets stranded on Omicron Persei 8 and Lrrr's son Jrrr leads him to a tech dump filled with advance communication equipment; of course rather then using the tech to call home, Fry aligns them to spell out SOS. By an unbelievable stroke of luck, Bender ends up spotting Fry's message from Earth. |
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| Island Help Message / int_a183d57f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Island Help Message / int_a183d57f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Futurama | hasFeature |
Island Help Message / int_a183d57f | |
| Island Help Message / int_a54eef52 | type |
Island Help Message | |
| Island Help Message / int_a54eef52 | comment |
In Hetalia: Axis Powers, the trio write "SOS" on the beach of the Deserted Island they are stranded on. | |
| Island Help Message / int_a54eef52 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Island Help Message / int_a54eef52 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Hetalia: Axis Powers (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
Island Help Message / int_a54eef52 | |
| Island Help Message / int_a5ec251b | type |
Island Help Message | |
| Island Help Message / int_a5ec251b | comment |
In one novel of Read or Die, Yomiko gets trapped on a desert island. There is a picture of her on the beach with her rescue message. "Send Books!" Of course, as a Paper Master, given enough reading material, she could probably make herself a way off the island. | |
| Island Help Message / int_a5ec251b | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Island Help Message / int_a5ec251b | featureConfidence |
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| Read or Die | hasFeature |
Island Help Message / int_a5ec251b | |
| Island Help Message / int_aca7b22d | type |
Island Help Message | |
| Island Help Message / int_aca7b22d | comment |
The Amazing World of Gumball: When Gumball and Tobias are stuck on a rooftop and see a nearby helicopter, they attempt to write a help message—using their own bodies. It didn't work because their message ended with a question mark (NEED HELP?). | |
| Island Help Message / int_aca7b22d | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Island Help Message / int_aca7b22d | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The Amazing World of Gumball | hasFeature |
Island Help Message / int_aca7b22d | |
| Island Help Message / int_b40513b1 | type |
Island Help Message | |
| Island Help Message / int_b40513b1 | comment |
One Foxtrot arc has Roger take Peter and Jason on a Horrible Camping Trip/Macho Disaster Expedition. When he tells them to build a fire pit, he tells them they're doing it wrong, as the stones are in an S shape. The next bird's eye view panel shows they've written "SEND PIZZA". | |
| Island Help Message / int_b40513b1 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Island Help Message / int_b40513b1 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| FoxTrot (Comic Strip) | hasFeature |
Island Help Message / int_b40513b1 | |
| Island Help Message / int_b7f8a84e | type |
Island Help Message | |
| Island Help Message / int_b7f8a84e | comment |
In part 2 of Little Britain Abroad, Lou spells out a large sign which reads "Help...we are in a bit of a kerfuffle." | |
| Island Help Message / int_b7f8a84e | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Island Help Message / int_b7f8a84e | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Little Britain | hasFeature |
Island Help Message / int_b7f8a84e | |
| Island Help Message / int_bff78dfe | type |
Island Help Message | |
| Island Help Message / int_bff78dfe | comment |
A variation in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. In the "Must there be a Superman?" montage, a family is shown sheltering on the roof of their house surrounded by rising floodwaters. Painted on the roof is a large "S" logo. Needless to say, Superman answers the call. | |
| Island Help Message / int_bff78dfe | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Island Help Message / int_bff78dfe | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice | hasFeature |
Island Help Message / int_bff78dfe | |
| Island Help Message / int_c43df4d8 | type |
Island Help Message | |
| Island Help Message / int_c43df4d8 | comment |
Doctor Who: While stranded at the start of the Twentieth Century, Yaz, Dan, and Professor Jericho leave one around the Great Wall of China for Karvanista who along with the Lupari fleet is protecting Earth in 2021. Karvanista sees the message but it only annoys him, as he doesn't have a time machine so what's he supposed to do about it? | |
| Island Help Message / int_c43df4d8 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Island Help Message / int_c43df4d8 | featureConfidence |
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| Doctor Who | hasFeature |
Island Help Message / int_c43df4d8 | |
| Island Help Message / int_c4778e4b | type |
Island Help Message | |
| Island Help Message / int_c4778e4b | comment |
As part of the tasks they had to complete in the "stranded on an island with nothing but duct tape" episode of Mythbusters, Adam and Jamie had to create a signal for help. They ended up with a huge SOS on the beach made of strips of duct tape held down with rocks. | |
| Island Help Message / int_c4778e4b | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Island Help Message / int_c4778e4b | featureConfidence |
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| MythBusters | hasFeature |
Island Help Message / int_c4778e4b | |
| Island Help Message / int_d6b6971d | type |
Island Help Message | |
| Island Help Message / int_d6b6971d | comment |
This has been a challenge in several seasons of Survivor. | |
| Island Help Message / int_d6b6971d | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Island Help Message / int_d6b6971d | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Survivor | hasFeature |
Island Help Message / int_d6b6971d | |
| Island Help Message / int_dbcb27dc | type |
Island Help Message | |
| Island Help Message / int_dbcb27dc | comment |
In The Martian Mark considers spelling out messages with rocks for the Mars-orbiting satellites to read as a last resort, in Morse code because dots and dashes are easier to make. After Pathfinder's radio is fried he does that. | |
| Island Help Message / int_dbcb27dc | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Island Help Message / int_dbcb27dc | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The Martian | hasFeature |
Island Help Message / int_dbcb27dc | |
| Island Help Message / int_e059f3 | type |
Island Help Message | |
| Island Help Message / int_e059f3 | comment |
Yogi Bear and the Magical Flight of the Spruce Goose: Dread Baron and Mumbly write it at the island where the heroes meet them. | |
| Island Help Message / int_e059f3 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Island Help Message / int_e059f3 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Yogi Bear and the Magical Flight of the Spruce Goose | hasFeature |
Island Help Message / int_e059f3 | |
| Island Help Message / int_e2aa3bec | type |
Island Help Message | |
| Island Help Message / int_e2aa3bec | comment |
In Dead Island, one of the early sidequests is completing a "HELP" message spelled out of boxes, which was abandoned because the zombies attacked while they were building it. The same happens to you when you try it. | |
| Island Help Message / int_e2aa3bec | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Island Help Message / int_e2aa3bec | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Dead Island (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Island Help Message / int_e2aa3bec | |
| Island Help Message / int_e41ea518 | type |
Island Help Message | |
| Island Help Message / int_e41ea518 | comment |
In pictures for sad children, David Foster Wallace writes a help message. | |
| Island Help Message / int_e41ea518 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Island Help Message / int_e41ea518 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| pictures for sad children (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
Island Help Message / int_e41ea518 | |
| Island Help Message / int_eb8193b6 | type |
Island Help Message | |
| Island Help Message / int_eb8193b6 | comment |
In the original Survival Kids game (the series that went on to become Lost in Blue), the way to get the quickest ending was to build one of these on the beach. You'd then get rescued. (It is, of course, a long ways from the Best Ending, which you need to unlock New Game Plus mode—in which your character rescues the other child on the island, befriends them, the two of you escape on a Lost Technology ship, and grow up to get married.) | |
| Island Help Message / int_eb8193b6 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Island Help Message / int_eb8193b6 | featureConfidence |
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| Lost in Blue (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Island Help Message / int_eb8193b6 | |
| Island Help Message / int_ec6862b4 | type |
Island Help Message | |
| Island Help Message / int_ec6862b4 | comment |
Watchmen (2019): Adrian Veidt does a particularly nasty version of this trope by killing hundreds of his Expendable Clones, using their bodies to spell out an appeal to be rescued on the surface of Europa that can be seen by a passing satellite. | |
| Island Help Message / int_ec6862b4 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Island Help Message / int_ec6862b4 | featureConfidence |
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| Watchmen (2019) | hasFeature |
Island Help Message / int_ec6862b4 | |
| Island Help Message / int_f5799bd9 | type |
Island Help Message | |
| Island Help Message / int_f5799bd9 | comment |
The Critic's parents were stranded on a South Pacific Island once; His father spelled out a message on the beach, which was acted upon by a Crazy-Prepared rescue crew: "Need Gin." | |
| Island Help Message / int_f5799bd9 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Island Help Message / int_f5799bd9 | featureConfidence |
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| The Critic | hasFeature |
Island Help Message / int_f5799bd9 | |
| Island Help Message / int_f6c05e8e | type |
Island Help Message | |
| Island Help Message / int_f6c05e8e | comment |
Played with in Friends. The gang is trapped at a rest stop somewhere in upstate New York and Joey writes "help" in sticks on the snow. Only he spells it "pleh" so the guys in the planes can read it. | |
| Island Help Message / int_f6c05e8e | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Island Help Message / int_f6c05e8e | featureConfidence |
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| Friends | hasFeature |
Island Help Message / int_f6c05e8e | |
| Island Help Message / int_fc439a61 | type |
Island Help Message | |
| Island Help Message / int_fc439a61 | comment |
Played with in Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth when Edgeworth and Kay are trapped in the kidnapper's hideout. Examining the paint causes Kay to suggests they write "HELP" in giant letters with it. Edgeworth comments that with them being in a building no one would see it, causing Kay to then suggest they set the paint on fire, so that they cause someone to think a crazy arsonist is about and call the cops. Edgeworth just shoots down this suggestion with a silence. | |
| Island Help Message / int_fc439a61 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Island Help Message / int_fc439a61 | featureConfidence |
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| Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth (Visual Novel) | hasFeature |
Island Help Message / int_fc439a61 | |
| Island Help Message / int_fcf34eec | type |
Island Help Message | |
| Island Help Message / int_fcf34eec | comment |
In the first Full Metal Panic! story arc, Sousuke creates a large fire spelling 'A67 ALIVE' as Mithril's satellite is passing over the area so that his allies know that Angel (Kaname), Urzu 6 (Kurz), and Urzu 7 (Sousuke) are alive after being cut off from the extraction team. Tessa responds by sending Sousuke the Arbalest, which enables them to save themselves. | |
| Island Help Message / int_fcf34eec | featureApplicability |
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| Island Help Message / int_fcf34eec | featureConfidence |
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Island Help Message / int_fcf34eec | |
| Island Help Message / int_fd4c848a | type |
Island Help Message | |
| Island Help Message / int_fd4c848a | comment |
I Dream of Jeannie: In the pilot, spacecapsule wrecked astronaut Tony Nelson makes one, inadvertantly using Jeannies bottle as part of the last S. | |
| Island Help Message / int_fd4c848a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Island Help Message / int_fd4c848a | featureConfidence |
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| I Dream of Jeannie | hasFeature |
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