Human Mail: Difference between revisions

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Let's say you wanted to get somewhere really fast, or need to get someone out of your hair. Just send them through the mail! This is what human mail is - someone getting mailed (intentionally or accidentally) somewhere in a package.
 
Naturally, it would be nearly impossible for someone to actually get sent through the mail service in [[Real Life]]. While packages take time to deliver (Severalseveral days to a week, at best) and often follow a very indirect routing, the package can be sent through in as short as a few hours or even minutes in fiction. This trope only applies if they are sent in a package or delivered as one.
 
See also [[Girl in a Box]]. Not to be confused with the [[Mail Order Bride]] shtick, nor with a [[Incredibly Lame Pun|non-female human being]].
See also [[Girl in A Box]].
{{examples|Examples: }}
 
{{examples|Examples: }}
== [[Advertising]] ==
* A British TV ad for Tennants lager had a man attempt to stow away in a shipping crate to get deported back to the country he supposedly came from.
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* Niche from the manga/anime ''[[Tegami Bachi]]'' started off as this, although she's actually [[Not Quite Human]].
** Also how Lag Seeing was introduced: he was being mailed to his aunt's house.
* In ''[[Ranma One Half½]]'', annoying midget pervert Happosai gets stuffed into a box to be mailed somewhere a couple of times in both Manga and Anime. It never sticks.
* After America, France, and England got sick of caring for him, Italy in ''[[Axis Powers Hetalia]]'' was sent back to Germany in a beat-up cardboard box that one would use for mailing off packages that said "FUCK" on it.
 
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== [[Film]] ==
* ''[[The Aristocats]]'' had the butler Edgar, attempt to mail the kittens and cats away to Timbuktu at the end of film. In the end, he himself gets thrown into the chest, and is mailed off.
* The Chipettes in ''[[AlvinandtheAlvin Chipmunksand (Film)the Chipmunks|Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakuel]]'' mailed themselves to Jett Records in a FEDex package. They weren't aware that Ian Hawke was out of a job now since the events of the first movie.
* The ''[[George of the Jungle (Filmfilm)|George of the Jungle]]'' movie has George ship himself from [[San Francisco]] to the jungle via UPS.
{{quote| "Next time, George get bigger box." }}
* In ''[[Hudson Hawk]]'', Eddie wakes up in a packing material shipping crate in another country after being rendered unconscious.
* The Real Life example (see below) about the East German prisoner (imprisoned for [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/:Republikflucht |Republikflucht]]) was depicted in the movie ''Fuehrer Ex''.
* He's not techincally a human, but [[Short Circuit (Film)|Johnny 5]] mailed himself to Benjamin in [[City Withwith No Name|the city,]] (with the help of Newton and Stephanie), after being rejected as an airplane passenger.
 
== [[Literature]] ==
* In the [[Discworld]] novel ''[[Discworld (Literature)/Thief of Time|Thief of Time]]'', the [[Mad Scientist|mad clockmaker]] has [[The Igor|has a mad scientist's assistant]] (named Igor, of course) mailed to him in a crate.
* [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_Stanley:Flat Stanley|Flat Stanley]] was transported cheaply this way.
 
== [[Live -Action TV]] ==
* In ''[[The Muppet Show]]'' episode with Jim Nabors, Jim played a travel agent and a monster asks for the cheapest travel package he has. Jim flattens the monster with a weight, sticks a stamp on him and mails him.
* ''[[Firefly]]'' had an episode where a former independence solider who served with Mal and Zoe mail himself to them to protect himself from an Alliance solider chasing him for smuggled goods.
* Part of Number Six's escape attempt an episode of ''[[The Prisoner]]'' includes being shipped in a wooden box from Poland to London.
* Subverted in ''[[Malcolm in Thethe Middle]]'' when Reese wants Dewey to mail him somewhere. Dewey packages him up and pretends to mail Reese by simulating movement and sounds. [[Too Dumb to Live|Reese falls for it.]]
* The ''[[Trailer Park Boys]]'' had an episode where Cory and Trevor are mailed to a [[Snoop Dogg]] concert...along with lots of marijuana.
* One of the girls in ''[['Allo 'Allo (TV)|Allo Allo!]]'' left the show this way, accidentally mailed to Switzerland. She was replaced by Mimi in the next episode.
 
== [[Music]] ==
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* Calvin of ''[[Calvin and Hobbes]]'' sometimes attempts to run away by sitting in a box by the mailbox with a vague address written on it (for example, "To Australia"). It...doesn't work.
* [[Garfield]] occasionally tries to mail Nermal, his kitten rival, to Abu Dhabi.
 
== [[Truth in Television]] ==
* Henry Box Brown was an African-American slave in Virginia. He successfully escaped in a shipping box to Pennsylvania, a free state.
* A German prisoner once snuck into the mail room and climbed into a box that was picked up by the courier.
* A man named Charles McKinley shipped himself in a box from New York to Dallas to visit his parents, and saved on air fares by charging the shipping fees to his former employer. He took the rest of the journey by riding on a plane normally, though.
* Since the US Parcel Post Service began in 1913, rural communities can receive goods at a low price. This occurred to small children as well because they can be sent by mail for less than the cost of a train ticket. Famously, four-year-old May Pierstroff was mailed across Idaho to her grandparents as a baby chicken and was just short of the 50 pound limit. Of course years later, regulations were issued against sending children by mail.
 
== [[Video Games]] ==
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* ''[[Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi]]'' had Kaz attempt this to ge back into the tour bus when their cats, Jeng Kang and Tekirai lock him out. Kaz gets mailed to a bunch of other places courtesy of the cats until the package eventually returns.
* A ''[[Beavis and Butthead]]'' episode had the pair attempting to mail themselves.
* ''[[The Simpsons (Animationanimation)|The Simpsons]]'' episode "Bart on the Road" had Bart and his friends travel home in a shipment crate.
* ''[[Looney Tunes]]'':
** In two ''[[Looney Tunes]]'' cartoons, Porky Pig tries to get rid of Charlie Dog this way. [[The Cat Came Back|Charlie always gets sent back]].
* On ''[[Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends]]'', Bloo tries to send Cheese away through the mail. Cheese gets sent back due to [[Crowning Moment of Funny|insufficient postage to tolerate smell]].
** [[Bugs Bunny]] once mailed himself to [[Washington DC]]. - first class, so he wouldn't have to travel with the common parcels.
* On ''[[FostersFoster's Home for Imaginary Friends]]'', Bloo tries to send Cheese away through the mail. Cheese gets sent back due to [[Crowning Moment of Funny|insufficient postage to tolerate smell]].
* Garfield mailing Nermal to Abu Dhabi, or threatening to do so, was something of a Running Gag in ''[[Garfield and Friends]]''.
** In one episode, "Monday Misery", Garfield mails himself to Samoa, hoping to escape a bad Monday. It doesn't work.
{{quote| [[Running Gag|*SPLUT!*]]}}
* In the [[SpongebobSpongeBob SquarePants]] episode "Kracked Krabs", Mr Krabs and Spongebob travel to an awards ceremony for Cheapest Krab. In order to travel as cheaply as possible they mail themselves there at the price of a 1 cent stamp.
 
== Real Life ==
* Henry "Box" Brown was an African-American slave in Virginia. He successfully escaped in a shipping box to Pennsylvania, a free state. ''[[Cracked.com]]''{{'}}s [http://www.cracked.com/article_20504_the-5-most-badass-ways-people-escaped-from-slavery.html The 5 Most Badass Ways People Escaped from Slavery] states that when Brown later bragged about how he did it, slavery opponent Frederick Douglass was infuriated because he wanted this escape method to be kept secret so that other slaves could use it.
* A German prisoner once snuck into the mail room and climbed into a box that was picked up by the courier.
* A man named Charles McKinley shipped himself in a box from New York to Dallas to visit his parents, and saved on air fares by charging the shipping fees to his former employer. He took the rest of the journey by riding on a plane normally, though.
* Since the US Parcel Post Service began in 1913, rural communities can receive goods at a low price. This occurred to small children as well because they can be sent by mail for less than the cost of a train ticket. Famously, four-year-old May Pierstroff was mailed across Idaho to her grandparents as a baby chicken and was just short of the 50 pound limit. Of course years later, regulations were issued against sending children by mail.
* In 1965, Brian Robson was a 19-year-old working for Victorian Railways. Airfare back to his home in Cardiff, Wales from Australia was £700 and he only made £40/month, so he had two accomplices [https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/apr/08/thinking-inside-the-box-the-welsh-teen-who-tried-to-post-himself-home-from-australia load him into a shipping crate] in which he made it as far as the US before being detected. The rest of the trip was completed by conventional means.
 
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Trope{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Comedy Tropes]]
[[Category:Human Mail, Post and Parcel Tropes]]
[[Category:Trope]]