Are We There Yet?
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Nappa: Are we there yet? —Team Four Star shows us how its done.
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Nappa: Are we there yet? —Team Four Star, several episodes later.
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Stock Phrase in comedy, (almost?) always repeated ad nauseam, usually by children or childish characters, much to the annoyance of the other passengers. The stock response is a "We'll get there when we get there!" in an annoyed voice, or "Don't make me turn this car around!" when the driver is getting fed up.
Very often prompts Smurf-related jokes. Goes without saying that this is Truth in Television.
If the characters are instead waiting for something, but not actually going anywhere, the phrase may become "Is it time yet?! Is it time yet?!" or "How about now?"
Advertising
- A car advertisement in Brazil featured a man and a boy on a road trip. The boy kept asking the question's Brazilian equivalent "Já chegamos?" (Have we already arrived?) until they finally arrived. The boy threw a small tantrum when the answer was yes.
Anime and Manga
- Natsu of Fairy Tail will often feebly asks "Are... we still... not... there... yet...?" whenever on any kind of transport, but in his case it's because he suffers from extreme motion sickness and can't wait to get out. He's once so out of it that he keep asking even after they've arrived at the destination.
Comic Books
- As the "big kid" of the team, you can count on Johnny for this in Fantastic Four. The first issue of Mark Waid's run, is just one example.
- In Marvel Zombies 2, after the zombified heroes ate just about everything in the universe, they decide to go back to Earth to find a way to make more food to satisfy their endless hunger. Along their journey, Spider-Man starts asking "So are we there yet?" while everyone else says "No." He continues asking until they finally get there, much to everyone's annoyance.
- During the "Civil War" tie-in issues of Amazing Spider-Man, Iron Man realises that Spidey is feeling really out of it when he doesn't take the opportunity to do this.
- The Flash and Nightwing one-shot opens with Wally West asking this. Given Dick is driving a guy with Super Speed, it makes sense he'd bore easily.
- The Smurfs did this first in the comic book story The Astro Smurf, when they were carting Astro Smurf and his spaceship to the inside of an inactive volcano, which became a constant running gag.
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Smurf #1: Is it really that much further, Papa Smurf? |
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Fan Works
- In Dragon Ball Abridged, Vegeta is constantly annoyed when Nappa does this routine (for an entire year) on their way to Earth. Then, when they finally reach Earth and begin waiting for Goku... "Is he here yet? Is he here yet? Is he here yet?"
- The outtakes for the series contain two separate unused examples which play with an increasingly intense build-up of "are we there yet" and "no":
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(...) |
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- Fanfic example: this is the Catch Phrase of Final Fantasy Legacy's child alchemist Mika Gilchrist, who uses it knowingly to get a rise out of the adults, and to blow off some steam when under severe stress.
- In 1KidsEntertainment's Death Note: The Abridged Series:
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Rem: Is Misa saved yet? |
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- An Entry With a Bang, when the pirate alliance is on its way to C-Earth, one of the pirate captains calls the guy leading the way after every FTL jump to ask this question.
Film
- Shrek 2: Donkey, on the way to Far Far Away.
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Donkey: Are we there yet? |
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- The Incredibles. You've got a superhero family in full coordinated costumes in a camper suspended under a rocket platform, and the kid still has to say it because he is a kid and not an adult in a kid's body. Mr. Incredible returns the stock response.
- The Brave Little Toaster: Blanky.
- An American Tail
- Fievel asks "Are we there yet?" as the ship they're on crosses the Atlantic for America.
- He asks it again in the sequel Fievel Goes West when they're traveling by train to the Wild West.
- The Mummy Trilogy Returns: Done intentionally by Alex to annoy the kidnappers.
- The family comedy Are We There Yet?, as you would expect. Summary: Family road trip, Hilarity Ensues.
- Followed by an In Name Only series which seems to follow the plot of its sequel Are We Done Yet? more.
- Flight of the Navigator (spaceship): Max.
- Galaxy Quest (shuttle ride): Sir Alexander Dane. Of course, this is a rare case of this phrase being invoked as a response to an annoyance, rather than being the annoyance itself. Basically, Dane was getting annoyed at being holed up in the cramped shuttle with Guy, who wouldn't stop whining about his perceived role as a Red Shirt.
- The Haunted Mansion: Michael.
- RocketMan: Fred Randall.
- Tears of the Sun: Michael "Slo" Slowenski.
- Kel in Two Heads are Better than None.
- The background of the opening credits of Carpool is, rather than music, the typical morning carpool conversation. Naturally, the kids start up a chant of "Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?" When the driver yells at them to "stop saying that", they change the chant to "When will we get there? When will we get there? When will we get there?
- Race to Witch Mountain: "Good in any universe."
- The Wizard (film) features a variant of this... "CAHLEEFORNYAH!"
Live-Action TV
- In The Wrong Door, this is one of the catchphrases of the most annoying creature ever created.
- In the season five episode "Spiral" of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the Scoobies are on the run from Glory in a stolen RV, and while they're on the road, Anya decides after some inquiries that it is traditional—and, indeed, required—that someone ask this. So she does.
- British Tropers of a certain age may remember Timmy Mallett's early morning childrens' TV show the Wide Awake Club (Later Wacaday). Mallett encouraged children to continually whine "Arrrre wwweeeeee neeeaaarrrrly thereeeee yeeeet?" as a great way to annoy adults and fellow travellers. It works.
- In Rome, one of Timon's children jokingly says this on their way to Jerusalem from Rome, while they're still in the city.
- Mystery Science Theater 3000 had a variation with Crow continually asking Mike if it was 11:30 yet. "So when will it be 11:30 again, Mike?"
- Trombley in Generation Kill asks this while waiting to invade Iraq.
- Amy asks this in the Doctor Who episode "The Time of Angels".
- One episode of Power Rangers Zeo features Rito Revolto annoying Rita and Zedd with the question. Rita even threatens to throw Rito from the mobile base. While one can't tell exactly how many times Rito asked the question, as he probably started before the scene, he apparently asked too many times as the last time he asked before Rita's threat resulted in Zedd's Big No. And it didn't take long after Rita's threat before he asked again.
Music
- To the tune of "Frère Jacques":
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Are we there yet? Are we there yet? |
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- And so on for four hundred kilometres...
- The children's channel Noggin had a summer song called "Are We There Yet?" And it was about a vacation, of course.
- Joe Scruggs also has a song by this title.
Newspaper Comics
- Calvin and Hobbes: Calvin always does this before the camping trips from Hell.
- Likewise FoxTrot, though when they do arrive the kids immediately switch to asking, "Can we go home yet?"
Theatre
- In the children's play How to Eat Like a Child, the sequence on "How to Ride in a Car" includes one child who only says, repeatedly, "Ask if you're almost there yet!"
Video Games
- Final Fantasy
- Final Fantasy VII: Barret, while he, Cloud and Tifa are climbing the stairs to Shinra Tower. At one point, he gets fed up with how long it's taken so far, and says he's going back down, at which point Tifa points out it'll be just as far down as it was up.
- In Final Fantasy X, you're given the option to rent a Chocobo for use along Mi'hen Highroad, or walk, where walking also causes encounters with enemies. The choice is apparently lost on Tidus, who asks this if a Chocobo isn't rented, despite him being the one who decided to not rent a Chocobo, as he is the player character.
- Mr. Little from Cave Story will utter this phrase when you keep him in your inventory.
- In Kingdom Hearts Re:coded, Data-Sora asks this after hitting layer 20 of Olympus Coliseum (in a possible third [or higher-numbered] playthrough of the world).
- In Kid Icarus Uprising, Pit asks this several times while climbing the Lightning Chariot Master's tower, much to Viridi's annoyance.
Web Comics
- This strip of Looking for Group, including the Smurf-related joke.
- Happens in this page of Darths and Droids.
- The Order of the Stick
- Yet another Smurfs Shout-Out is done by the Demon-Roaches in strip #147.
- Used to emphasize Elan's childlike mentality in strip #488.
- Paul Southworth (of Ugly Hill) did a guest strip for Unshelved where a gag summary of The Road consists of this... only with the variation that it's "Are we dead yet?"
- The "are we dead yet" gag was also used in this strip of Irregular Webcomic, along with a link to this page, as usual.
- Parodied in the Pokey the Penguin strip "Pokey in Ancient Scotland":
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Small Child: POKEY ARE WE THERE YET? |
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- This strip of Arthur, King of Time and Space.
- This strip of Cwen's Quest.
- This strip of Bob and George.
- Said by Dhur, the resident Idiot Hero of Meat Shield.
- This early Wapsi Square strip featured this kind of situation in a car full of adults, complete with the "Don't make me stop this van" response. The purpose was probably to emphasize the childishness of the interactions between Owen and Shelly.
Web Original
- Bree does this in the Lonelygirl15 episode "Swimming!"
- Emily does this in the Look a Vlog Ep. 11.
Western Animation
- The Smurfs, of course. Sometimes, though, Papa Smurf would go, "Let's not smurf this again" or "Oh, smurf up!"
- The Simpsons
- Homer, of course:
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Homer: Are we in India yet? |
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- They also subverted it when the family was forced to hike through an African jungle:
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Bart and Lisa: Are we insane yet? Are we insane yet? Are we insane yet? |
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- This also happens in a commercial for Universal Orlando's The Simpsons Ride, where Bart and Lisa keep on asking "Are We There Yet?" over and over.
- Also happened in an episode of the show where Bart and Lisa spent most of a long car trip continuously asking "Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?" and Homer countering just as continuously "Just a little further. Just a little further. Just a little further."
- Still another example is between Bart and Homer when they're lost in the woods.
- Family Guy
- Chris Griffin, of course.
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Chris: Are we there yet? |
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- In a Flashback Twist from another episode, a slave on a ship heading for America keeps whining "Are we there yet?" to the captain.
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Captain: Damn it! I swear to God I will turn this ship around. |
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- American Dad has fun with this, too.
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Stan Are we there yet? |
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- Animaniacs did a whole musical number on this.
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Are we there yet? |
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- José Carioca keeps asking this on his way to the World Cup. The truck driver he's hitched a ride with is nice enough to keep taking him there, but not enough to put up with the constant questioning, so he gags and ties up Joe for the rest of the trip.
- In one episode of Bobby's World, Bobby and family are moving. Within five seconds of their departture, Bobby asks "Are we there yet?" and to his surprise, the answer is yes (they were only moving across the street).
- Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths: Done by the Flash. More than 15 times, as stated by the Green Lantern, who was not amused.
- Justice League Unlimited gives us Green Arrow, with the "Are we dead yet" variant, while on a motorcycle with Black Canary. Given that they are on a railroad track, it sounds more like "A-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-are we-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e de-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-ead ye-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-et?". Eventually, Black Canary responds, "Look, if we die, I promise I'll let you know."
- Used in more than one episode of Caillou, though Caillou usually (though not always) refrains from asking more than once.
- The title card for the Danny Phantom two-part episode "Reality Trip" features the phrase "Are we there yet?"
- In The Legend of Korra, the introduction of Tenzin and his family has his daughter Ikki saying this over, and over, and over...
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Tenzin: (as his son gums his head) Yes, Ikki. As I've been telling you for the last fifteen minutes, We are. Finally. Here. |
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... Are we done yet?