The little boy has lost a ball.
Will Mr. Mean help? Don't bet on it.
Will Mr. Mean help? Don't bet on it.
Saturday night comes and goes without too much on my mind
Just kicking a ball down the street
I give it too much juice and it flies over the fence of my local NASA compound
(Just bear with me)
— Tom Cardy, "Hey, I Don't Work Here"
A ball going out of the playing area is an easy way to create a plot or diversion.
With most games involving a ball, there is always a chance that the ball will accidentally be thrown, rolled, or kicked to somewhere awkward, such as over a fence, into water, up a tree, into a forbidden or dangerous area, or into the garden of a Grumpy Old Man. The plot arises when somebody tries to retrieve the ball, or if the ball hits somebody, or otherwise attracts attention. The person fetching the ball might end up in a difficult or dangerous situation, or somebody else fetching the ball might demand something in return. If the ball ends up in a vehicle, it can become an Accidental Passenger.
In Real Life, most drivers know that it can be very dangerous if a ball bounces into the road in front of them, because it is very likely that a child will follow the ball.
This can apply to other projectiles thrown as part of a game, such as a frisbee, or flying toys such as kites and model aircraft, including drones.
Supertrope to Broken Glass Penalty if the ball breaks a window. Can result in Lost Toy Grievance, if the ball is valuable. Compare Threw My Bike on the Roof, which can result from a lost ball; Doomed Autographed Item, Murphy's Kite, and Fun-Hating Confiscating Adult, with which this can overlap. Very much Truth in Television.
Examples:
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Advertising
- This
Public Information Film involving the dangers of electricity features two children playing with a Frisbee. One of them, Jimmy, throws it into a nearby electricity substation and is encouraged by the other child to retrieve it, stating that she saw a group of other kids sneak into the substation the other day. Jimmy squeezes in through a gap in the fence, ignoring the warning signs that advise not to enter, and when he goes to get the lodged Frisbee by climbing the equipment, he's electrocuted to death before he can get it while his friend watches on and screams his name in horror. The film ends with a news report on Jimmy's death, as well as a message from the electricity board stating that kids should not break into substations and should not try to get toys back that they have lost in them. The film also shows an electricity official handing a football back to a boy.
- Similarly, there are public information films warning against flying kites near overhead power lines, as this can cause electrocution.
- One advertisement for Dairylea cheese slices had a child absolutely refuse to go and retrieve a lost ball, until he's bribed with the promise of one of the cheese slices. The gruelling ordeal he goes through for his reward is conveyed almost entirely through the medium of sound effects.
Anime & Manga
- Crayon Shin-chan: When Shin and Masao play with the latter's new ball, Shin gets distracted by a pretty lady, causing it to roll into someone's backyard, where a hostile dog rests. After many attempts, they eventually succeed in distracting it with food and reclaim the ball, only for Shin to get distracted once again with the ball ending up in someone else's backyard... which houses a crocodile.
- YuYu Hakusho: The entire plot of the series begins when a young boy is playing with a ball on the sidewalk, and it bounces into the street. The boy unthinkingly runs after it, and protagonist Yusuke Urameshi dives after him to throw him out of the way of an oncoming car, and is struck and killed himself. Ironically, heaven's actual plan was for the ball to shield the boy from the car (for no reason that is ever explained), but they're so impressed by Yusuke's willingness to risk his life for a child that they offer him a chance to be resurrected.
Films — Animated
- Monster House: For decades, the Grumpy Old Man Horace Nebbercracker has confiscated any toys that stray onto his property, often verbally harassing the children who have lost them. Elizabeth's boyfriend Bones recalls how Nebbercracker stole his kite years ago, and DJ's best friend Chowder is upset when he loses his new basketball to Nebbercracker's yard. When DJ attempts to retrieve Chowder's ball, he kicks off the main plot of the film.
- The Sword in the Stone: Wart is introduced following Kay as he goes hunting. Just as Kay is about to shoot an arrow at a deer, Wart, watching on a branch above him, falls on top of him, causing the arrow to fly off into the woods. Wart goes to retrieve it, and in doing so, falls into the hut belonging to the great wizard Merlin, who decides to tutor him, setting off the plot.
Films — Live-Action
- Blowup: At the end, Thomas sees two people miming playing tennis without a ball. An Object-Tracking Shot shows the invisible ball going out of the court, and one of the players then looks pointedly at Thomas. He throws the invisible ball back, and after this, he starts hearing the ball, which was not audible before.
- By The Sea:
- A Running Gag is that the brat's beach ball keeps hitting one of the other characters on the head, who eventually shoots the ball with a gun.
- When the characters play golf, two of their balls fly into the sky and kill birds. Another smashes a window, and a fourth bounces down some steps and into a lady's coffee cup. The lady then drinks her coffee and swallows the ball.
- Carry On Behind: Fred spots two young women playing with a beach ball, and joins in their game; he then kicks the ball away, and it lands in a man's washing-up bowl. The man throws the ball away, and it lands in a couple's salad bowl. The man kicks it away, and it ends up in Barnes's wheelbarrow. Barnes spears it with a fork and puts it on his bonfire, causing Fred to try to rescue it.
Fred: Me ball's burning!Barnes: Don't stand so close to the fire.
- Dude Bro Party Massacre 3: The first flashback has Road Doggie searching for a frisbee that landed in the woods. When he asks someone to help him look, that someone reveals herself to be a sorority mother who was burned alive by a fraternity prank gone wrong and throws a saw blade into his mouth, partially decapitating him.
- Honey, I Shrunk the Kids: A stray baseball serves both as a motivation for the kids to enter the attic and as an unintentional activation and fix for the shrinking ray, leading to the titular situation.
- The Sandlot: The third act kicks off when Scotty "borrows" his stepfather's prized baseball (autographed by Babe Ruth) and, unaware of its true value, uses it in a baseball game with his friends. On his first at-bat, Scotty knocks the ball over the left field fence—into the yard of The Beast, a huge junkyard dog believed by all the kids to be a man-eating monster. The rest of the film is the gang's various attempts to get the ball back from The Beast before Stepdad returns from his business trip and realizes his ball is gone.
- Tales from Muppetland: The Frog Prince: Sir Robin the Brave, after being turned into a frog by the Wicked Witch Taminella Grinderfall, makes his way to the garden of King Rupert the Second. When Robin sees Princess Melora lose her golden ball down the well, he offers to get it back if he can be her friend and live in the palace.
Folklore
- A legend about the astronaut to walk on the moon, Neil Armstrong, concerns a stray ball of his, when he was a child.
When Apollo Mission Astronaut Neil Armstrong re-entered the lander after walking on the moon, he made the enigmatic remark "Good luck, Mr. Gorsky." Over the years, many people have questioned him as to what the "Good luck, Mr. Gorsky" statement meant. On July 5, in Tampa Bay, FL, while answering questions following a speech, a reporter brought up the 26-year-old question to Armstrong. He finally responded. It seems that Mr. Gorsky had died and so Armstrong felt he could answer the question. When he was a kid, Neil was playing baseball with his brother in the backyard. His brother hit a fly ball which landed in front of his neighbors' bedroom window. The neighbors were Mr. and Mrs. Gorsky. As he leaned down to pick up the ball, he heard Mrs. Gorsky shouting at Mr. Gorsky, "Oral sex? Oral sex you want? You'll get oral sex when the kid next door walks on the moon!"
Literature
- Danny, the Champion of the World: Early in the story, Danny and his father make a fire balloon, which they send up into the air. They lose sight of it when it comes down and search for it the same evening, without success. The following morning, Danny searches four big fields for it and finds it surrounded by cows, who fortunately have not harmed it.
- This trope is invoked in The Famous Five book Five Have Plenty of Fun. When George has been kidnapped, and the others believe she might be held at Gringo's Great Fair, they visit the fair, and win a ball at a fairground stall. They then play a game with the ball and deliberately send it near the caravans to give them a reason to go near them.
- The Frog Prince: When the princess is playing with her golden ball, she loses it down a well. The frog retrieves it for her, on condition that he is allowed to become her playmate, eat from her plate, drink from her cup, and sleep in her bed.
- Mr. Men:
- On a hot day, Mr. Mean refuses to give any water to a wizard, who decides to teach him a lesson. The next day, when Mr. Mean refuses to help an old woman carry a heavy load of laundry, his nose turns into a carrot until he agrees to help. The old woman then reveals herself to be the wizard. Soon afterward, Mr. Mean refuses to help an old man chop firewood, and his ears become tomatoes until he agrees to help. Again, the old man reveals himself to be the wizard. A little later, Mr. Mean meets a young boy crying because his ball is stuck on a high wall. At first, Mr. Mean refuses to retrieve the ball... until he remembers what had happened the first two times. And once again, the boy turns out to be the wizard, who realizes that Mr. Mean has learned his lesson.
- Downplayed when Mr. Impossible kicks a football so high into the sky that when it comes down, it has snow on it.
- In a book of short Mr. Men stories, Mr. Impossible walks on the sea to retrieve a girl's beach ball.
- The Railway Series: In Stepney the "Bluebell" Engine, a cricket ball is batted out of the field, and lands in one of the trucks of Stepney's passing train. As it is their only ball, the cricketers then run after him in their ancient car, Caroline, trying to retrieve it.
- The Adventures of Wishbone: Be a Wolf!: The inciting incident that puts Wishbone in mind of the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf is his owner Joe Talbot losing his basketball in the unkempt yard of an old woman reputed to be a child-hating witch and owning a vicious dog. However, it turns out that the old woman is very nice, albeit lonely after the passing of her husband, and her dog is a total sweetie who only looks scary due to being a bulldog. It turns out that she used to be a basketball coach and helps Joe improve his game in exchange for yard work.
Live-Action TV
- The song “Señora, devuélvame el balón, o si no, no sé lo que haré” (“Miss, give me back the ball or I don't know what I'll do”) from 31 Minutos is about a kid trying to convince his cranky neighbor to give him back his ball. It is Played for Laughs when the neighbor suggests that the kid go to play with her husband, who has become paranoid of getting hit by balls, the kid has a great time and now doesn't ask for his balls back; he asks to play with the poor guy again.
- Curiosity Shop: Little Gerard and friends visit the shop to inquire "What Tool Do You Use To Get A Yo-Yo Out Of A Mailbox?" which is the episode's name. The kids learn about tools and the mail service, but that question is never exactly answered. Once the kids leave, Gerard's yo-yo comes rolling in, apparently seeking its owner. The yo-yo is told, "You just missed him," so it goes rolling back out the door.
- In the children's British comedy series The Magnificent Six And A Half (precursor to the better-known Here Come The Double Deckers), episode "It's Not Cricket", the kids' cricket ball lands in the yard of a grumpy old man. After he throws it onto the back of a passing truck, the rest of the episode has the kids trying to retrieve the ball from a construction site.
- Mr. Bean: The plot of the episode "Tee Off, Mr. Bean". When Mr. Bean plays mini golf, he hits the ball out of play. When he goes to pick it up, the supervisor shouts "Oi!", and Mr. Bean tries to get the ball back using only the putter. He sends it through a fence, onto a bus, and on an epic journey to get the ball back to the course, which he finally manages by nightfall.
- Square One TV: The Pilot Episode of the Mathnet segment, "The Problem of the Missing Baseball", involves a group of kids playing with an autographed baseball and losing it, leading to the kids calling the Mathnet division of the Los Angeles police for help. With the power of math, it was determined that the ball ended up in an old lady's house. Things get complex when before the house can be searched, the homeowner reports that the house itself is stolen, leading to the Mathnet team having to Race Against the Clock to locate the house before one of the kids' fathers returns to find his prized autographed baseball missing.
- Star Trek: The Next Generation: In the episode "Justice," Wesley is playing ball with some of the native youngsters; he jumps to catch a stray throw, but trips on landing and falls into a greenhouse and onto some flowers. Unfortunately, this particular greenhouse is currently in a randomly selected area in which the penalty for any infraction, including this one, is death.
Music
- In the video of "All I Want Is You" covered by Bellefire, some boys playing polo accidentally send their ball near the girls, who grab the ball and throw it to each other, and flirt with the boy who comes over to retrieve the ball.
- Tom Cardy's song "Hey, I Don't Work Here" ends with the protagonist accidentally kicking a ball over the fence of his local NASA compound, going to retrieve it, and ending up having to thwart an Alien Invasion all by himself — despite not even being a NASA employee!
Video Games
- The ClueFinders 6th Grade Adventures: The Empire of the Plant People starts off with Joni accidentally throwing a frisbee over a fence and into the overgrown yard of Miss Rose. While Joni and Santiago are trying to recover the frisbee, the earth suddenly swallows them up, and the plot kicks off from there.
- Flower Knight Girl: In Mission 23 of the first chapter of the main campaign, the Commander's group and German Iris are playing baseball at night on the beachside of Banana Ocean. As the pitcher, Silver Orchid accidentally strikes the ball too hard, sending it far into the jungle — the group setting out to find it to make it up to an upset German Iris. Meanwhile, Lantana and Evening Primrose's meeting in the jungle gets interrupted by the latter getting hit in the head by said ball and fainting, spurring Lantana to angrily throw it further away just as the others arrive at the scene. In order to finally get German Iris' ball back, everyone has to kill a spider-type pest near an ancient inscription.
- Living Books: The plot of Harry and the Haunted House is kickstarted when Harry and his friends play baseball, and Harry hits Stinky's baseball so hard that it flies into an abandoned house. Harry and his friends go into the house to retrieve it, all the while worrying that the house may be haunted. Harry's dog Spot retrieves the ball at the end of the story, but Harry loses his hat and now he and his friends have to go back into the house to find it.
- RuneScape: The quest "Witch's House" is kicked off when the player is enlisted to fetch a child's ball, which he kicked into the yard of the local witch. Doing so requires defeating the Witch's security system, evading the witch herself patrolling her garden, and defeating the Shapeshifting monster guarding the ball in the shed.
Web Animation
- The Amazing Digital Circus: A variant. In the third episode "The Mystery of Mildenhall Manor", the characters are given a choice between two adventures in a haunted mansion: a "fun for all ages" adventure behind a normal-looking door, or a very scary, nightmare-inducing adventure behind a door with a mouth. Jax takes Gangle's comedy mask and throws it at the scary door. Kinger volunteers to get it and goes on the scary adventure. Because he was holding Pomni's eye at the time, he accidentally takes her with him. Ragatha is less than pleased about this.
- The brewstew episode "Mean Old Lady" involves a mean old lady whose house is practically a death trap because of her very mean cat, as well as her being very protective of her property. Unfortunately for (young) Tyler and his friends, thrown objects have a tendency to land in that area. One day, Michael accidentally throws Tyler's Vortex football in there. An enraged Tyler demands that he go in there and get it back, no matter what. Michael somehow succeeds; it's revealed a few moments later that, unbeknownst to them at the time, the old woman died several weeks ago.
Western Animation
- The Adventure Time episode "Up a Tree" revolves around Finn attempting to recover his "discus" (not a Frisbee(TM)) due to IP issues) from a tree inhabited by dangerously territorial woodland creatures.
- Bod: Played with in "Bod's apple". Bod buys an apple and throws it up in the air to see if he can catch it, but the apple does not come back down. While he waits for it to come back down, the other characters appear one by one, and ask Bod what he is waiting for, and debate what may have happened to the apple. Eventually, the apple does come back down, causing a massive bump on Bod's head.
- Carl the Collector: The episode "The Bouncy Ball Collection" involves Carl's bouncy ball collection getting loose while trying to show it off to Sheldon, with the plot based on him searching the town for them, recruiting his other friends along the way.
- Craig of the Creek: In the prequel movie Craig Before the Creek, Craig first enters the Creek while looking for Jessica's Small Uncle doll after he accidentally flings it into the woods.
- Dennis the Menace (1986): In "Journey to the Center of Uncle Charlie's Farm", Dennis and Joey play basketball at Uncle Charlie's farm, which is suffering from a drought that prevent his plants from growing. The boys accidentally lose Joey's ball in the well, and when they go down to retrieve it, they discover a subterranean civilization. They befriend a young boy named Fred, who tells them that his tribe is suffering from a lack of water, and explore the cavern in the hope of finding some. Eventually, they find the source of the trouble in the form of a pile of boulders from an earthquake. After the pile collapses, the boys flee back to the village in a canoe and the rushing water brings them back up to the surface of Uncle Charlie's farm. Joey gets his ball back from Fred as thanks for bringing water to his tribe.
- The Loud House: The short "Super Switcheroo-niverse" involves Muscle Fish retrieving a ball (which has Lily's face and voice) for a pair of kids after it gets knocked away by a supervillain, pursuing it through the surreal universe he resides in.
- The Magic School Bus: In "Cold Feet," Wanda tries to invoke this to get into Herp Haven, with Suspiciously Specific Denial in the mix: "I am but an innocent schoolchild who has innocently lost my innocent baseball over your fence. May I innocently come in and innocently get it back?" The place's owner doesn't buy it, which forces Wanda and the rest of the class to think of a different plan to get into the building.
- Recess: In "The Lost Ball", Gus inadvertently kicks a good kickball over the school's fence into the yard of a house known among the students as The Yard of No Return. The rest of the episode, he has to try and get the ball back somehow. He even has an Imagine Spot about how the loss of the ball will continue to haunt him for the rest of his life.
- Happens several times in Rugrats:
- In the episode "Barbeque Story", Angelica chucks Tommy's ball over the fence, leading Tommy and the other babies to cross over to it to retrieve it, dealing with a scary guard dog in the process.
- In the episode "Susie vs. Angelica", Angelica once more chucks Tommy's ball over the fence, but the ball is ignored for most of the episode as Angelica and Susie quarrel over who is better until the end when the neighbor throws it back during the climatic race between the two kids.
- In "Stu-Maker's Elves", Tommy and Chuckie venture into Stu's workshop to retrieve Tommy's toy glider that had flown down into the basement. In the process of retrieving it, they manage to set Stu's Patty Pants machine from Reverse to Forward, allowing Stu to successfully mass-produce his line of Patty Pants dolls as planned.
- Shaun the Sheep:
- The episode "The Kite" has the flock trying to get a loose kite that blew into their pasture out of a tree.
- The episode "Mission Inboxible" centers around Shaun sneaking into the Farmer's house to retrieve the flock's football after his overzealous kick lands it right next to where the Farmer is setting up his new computer.
- The short "Five a Side" has Shaun trying to get his football back down after he accidentally kicks it into the barn's rafters.
- The short "Fly a Kite" sees Shaun's kite crash land into the sleeping bull's pen and his attempt to get it back without waking him up.
- The Simpsons: The plot of "Bart After Dark" kicks off when a frisbee is accidentally thrown onto the roof of a creepy-looking building; Springfield's children don't know anything about it other than that the owner, Belle, does not like children being on the property. Bart is the only one brave enough to try and retrieve the frisbee, and though he succeeds, he loses his balance and falls off, damaging one of the building's gargoyles in the process. He then discovers why Belle doesn't like children being on the property: it's a burlesque house.
- South Park: In an early scene in the episode "A Nightmare on FaceTime", two kids are seen playing with a ball when it accidentally bounces towards the front door of Blockbuster Video Store, and they're too afraid of going to get it. Randy (who had just bought the Blockbuster Store) picks up the ball and uses the opportunity to ask the kids if they want to rent any DVDs, but they don't know what he's talking about, much to his frustration. As the kids run away screaming, Randy ends up angrily throwing the ball across the street before going back inside.
- VeggieTales: This is part of the joke in the Silly Song "Gated Community". An unnamed boy, played by Larry, loses his ball when it falls into the gated community, and he spends the entire song trying to get the oblivious residents to throw it back.