Sistine Steal



In the Sistine Chapel in Rome, Michelangelo painted the fresco Creation of Adam. With his right hand outstretched, God floats above Adam to touch the man's fingertip. It's a famous and iconic painting known not only to art lovers, but also to the average television viewer.

It is often used in Comic Books, Web Comics, political comics and animated cartoons. It is similar in that sense to Michelangelo's Pietà sculpture, although the Creation of Adam will be used more often in humorous contexts.

Advertising

 * There was a sacrilegious ad for President's Choice Cola that airbrushed a can of the product in question into God's hand, as if He were bestowing it upon Adam.
 * There was a Samsung billboard advertisement that replaced Adam and God's skin with cell phones.
 * C. Montgomery Burns loses his copy (albeit only the fingers are shown) when all his property is seized in this Coca Cola commercial. Whether it's the original or not is left up to the viewer's imagination.

Anime & Manga

 * Seen in the opening credits of Death Note, with the symbolic double-whammy of an apple being passed between the Knight Templar Villain Protagonist and the god-figure. This, though, is half symbolism (since the protagonist's moral decline after receiving the titular Artifact of Doom is related to original sin) and half show in-joke (since the god in question is addicted to apples).
 * Subverted in the Trigun manga when,
 * The unknown hand the title character of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya reaches out to with a flash of light in the opening sequence is sometimes considered to be a reference to this.
 * In the finale of Revolutionary Girl Utena, Utena reaches her hand to Anthy
 * There's a picture of the original photo itself in episode 11 of Puella Magi Madoka Magica.
 * In Nichijou, Mai pulls this off on episode 4, in the MIDDLE OF AN EXAM, by touching a drawn hand on a chalkboard.

Comics -- Books

 * In The Sandman, the finger-touch part is imitated

Films -- Live-Action

 * E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial: E.T.'s glowing finger on the promotional poster for the movie, as it touches the finger of the young boy, is an example of a Sistine Steal.
 * Some promotional material for Bruce Almighty included this, with Jim Carrey's nether regions covered by a cloud and the only part of god showing being the arm.
 * In Rocket Man, after inadvertently waking up early from suspended animation, one of the activities the protagonist does to kill time during the 8 month voyage is make a painting of Creation of Adam (illustrating himself and his monkey copilot) using tubed food.
 * Creation has Charles Darwin reaching out to Jenny the orang-utan in this way.

Literature

 * Parodied in the Discworld illustrated novel The Last Hero, in which Cohen the Barbarian gives the middle finger to God (or rather Blind Io, the Disc's Zeus figure) and to the entire pantheon of major gods.

Live-Action TV

 * An episode of Arrested Development. Justified, somewhat, as it was a "re-enactment" of the painting in question rather than just a parody.
 * In the TV series version of The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy the subsection of the Babel fish entry on the non-existence of God represents God and Man using the famous Sistine depictions.
 * Used in every version of the opening credits of the long-running British arts programme The South Bank Show, with an animated spark between God's finger and Adam's.
 * This promotional image created for Pushing Daisies.
 * In Doctor Who, the Fires of Pompeii, the Doctor steps out of his TARDIS The TARDIS is unaccountably shining behind him, and then there's a shot of his hand, reaching out for  as if he's God and the human is Adam in the painting.
 * At least one hypothetical-future-disaster program (probably Life After People) shows the actual painting cracking down the middle, so that God's hand and Adam's are separated by the split, before the whole chapel collapses.
 * Used for no good reason in the first episode of Cleopatra 2525.

Music

 * The album cover for Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny is a parody of this.

Print Media

 * Sports Illustrated made a sports-related version of the entire Sistine Chapel ceiling for their fiftieth-anniversary celebration. The Creation of Adam fresco had the image of God unchanged and the image of Adam replaced with that of Babe Ruth.
 * An early Frazz Sunday comic had Frazz painting the cafeteria in kid-oriented versions of various famous paintings, including the Creation of Adam—with a cafeteria lunch lady spooning food onto a student's plate.

Video Games

 * Seen in the Pleasantly Understated Credit Sequence of the Lucas Arts game Sam and Max Hit the Road.
 * In the Lovecraftian Interactive Fiction game Anchorhead, the art gallery hall of the Verlac mansion contains a painting of an ailing old man and a woman giving birth, explicitly described as a disturbing pastiche of the Creation of Adam.
 * In the (infamous) fighting game of Cho Aniki, one of the characters is a nude reclining Adam.
 * There exists a wallpaper of the famous shot where Adam is replaced with Phoenix Wright giving God the pointer.

Web Comics

 * Karate Bears are not interested.

Web Original

 * Because everything's better with Cthulhu: The Creation of Squid.
 * The Flying Spaghetti Monster! Touched by his noodly appendage
 * There's an edited image where the Big Bang extends from God's finger.
 * Another one shows a DNA helix doing the same.

Western Animation

 * The E.T. example above is made even more explicit in an episode of Animaniacs, where Michelangelo faces a deadline, gets help from the Warners, and is horrified to see that they've painted God as E.T., and it's too late to change anything because the Pope has arrived. But as he's Steven Spielberg, he loves it.
 * Of course, a Simpsons reference.
 * Mr. Burns invokes this trope in his own short film, in which his own face replaces that of Adam.
 * Wakfu
 * In season 1 episode 6, the ceiling of the throne room in the Katrepat Castle features such a parody, with Count Vampyro in Adam's spot.
 * Another one with The Mmmmmmmmmporpg and Maude in episode 12 of season 2, during Bullet Time. Plus Lampshade Hanging by Ruel.
 * Home Movies - the kids sing about being artists in one of their movies - a banner rises behind them of the Creation of Adam, with God and Adam both modeled after Coach Mc Guirk. God is handing Adam a beer.
 * An alternate universe in Family Guy has no Christianity. The Sistine Chapel ceiling was designed by John Hinkley and is just photos of Jodie Foster. Why the Sistine Chapel would exist in such a world and why it would be in Rhode Island is never explained