Scooby-Doo Doors

About

Scooby-Doo Doors are named for running gags and tropes based in cartoon and movies scenes where characters, being pursued by another character, will dodge into a room down a hallway. The pursuer, knowing or unknowing their where the runners have hidden, will open a door and go in, only for the runners to flee out of another doorway.^[5]

Origin

The gag has been used since before the 1930's, has appeared in various plays on stage, and still finds itself used on occasion in modern animated and live-action television. Despite coming to play decades after its first usage, the 1960's television show Scooby-Doo used this in nearly every single episode.^[3] It became so synonymous with the running gag that it became part of the trope's name. Because of the hand-drawn animation styling, it was easy to focus only on a single, easy-to-draw hallway and fill the characters in when needed. This allowed for time to be filled on a low-budget.^[5]

Spread

The original gag was so common within television and other forms of media that it became comedic by simply using it. Various television shows such as South Park,^[2] Family Guy,^[1] Doctor Who,^[4] and the Simpsons have used it in the past to either fill time or mock its use. Live action shows do occasionally include the gag through use of stop-motion, but these variations are notably less common.

External References