Can anyone explain to me the physics (and chemistry too, I imagine) of things getting stuck in other things?

It just seems that it takes so little effort for something to get hopelessly, or almost hopelessly, stuck in something else and so much effort to get it unstuck. It seems, to this casual observer, that the amount of energy expended in or by the universe in the process of the thing getting stuck, lodged, wedged in, into or between something (s) else is so incredibly disproportionate to the amount of energy that is, or needs to be, expended getting the thing unstuck, dislodged and de-wedged-in. I would imagine surface tension and changes in temperature account for some of it, but not even close to all of it. I’m pretty sure the answer isn’t gremlins or a mischievous and malevolent universe. Really, what’s going on here?

(Smart ass answers welcome after 2:00 a.m. my time, you’ll have to guess)