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{{trope}}
[[File:International Morse Code.svg|thumb|400px|Now you know Morse, too.]]
{{quote|''Friday afternoon, I'm walking home from school and I'm watching some men build a new house. And the guy hammering on the roof calls me a paranoid little weirdo. In Morse code.''|'''[[Emo Phillips]]'''}}
 
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In another example of [[Did Not Do the Research]] or maybe [[Acceptable Breaks From Reality]], movies and TV usually show the Morse operators visibly tapping the key. Even a basic Morse class teaches you to grasp the sides of the key button with thumb and middle finger and index finger on top, and work the key from your wrist. But that's much less visual.
 
Incidentally, Morse Code is, for official purposes, largely obsolete: In 1999, it was retired as the international standard, andwith the 500kHz marine channel (which dates back to the ''RMS Titanic'' days) no longer monitored by the coast guard in 2007most countries. In 2003, the FCCITU dropped requirements for Morse proficiency for amateur radio operators on the shortwave bands; in the US, this was reflected in FCC regulations by the end of 2006. Unofficially, it's still used by Naviesnavies frequently, and Morse proficiency is necessary for communication-based rates. Many radioamateur OM's who have been licensed since the days Morse was required still use it, as it sometimes can still get a signal through under conditions which are too noisy (or the signals too weak) for reliable voice communications. In Canada, the volunteer examiners who grant new "ham" licences still know the code.
 
By the way, [[Distress Call|if you're in trouble]], you can always send the most commonly-known message in Morse Code: 3 Dots, 3 Dashes, 3 Dots (S.O.S.<span style="text-decoration:overline;">SOS</span>). ThoughThe overbar indicates <span style="text-decoration:overline;">SOS</span> worksis differentlya fromprosign most– Morsea transmissions.sequence Therewhich shouldis besent as if it were a single character, with no spaces between letters,. and itIt should be repeated in a continuous SOSOSO pattern. By the way, itIt doesn't mean "''S''ave ''O''ur ''S''ouls," or "save our ship" – rather the distinctive 3 dots and 3 dashes pattern was chosen because its an easy message for even an amateur to send and/or recognize even with heavy static. <!-- A similarly recognisable one is SMS (3 dots, 2 dashes, 3 dots), which at one point was commonly used on mobile phones to indicate an incoming text. -->
 
There were also a few common abbreviations, such as the "30" which indicated the end of a news wire story, which trace their roots to landline or wireless telegraphy.
A similarly recognisable one is SMS (3 dots, 2 dashes, 3 dots), which at one point was commonly used on mobile phones to indicate an incoming text.
 
[[I Thought It Meant|Not to be confused]] with [[Inspector Morse]] being recognized everywhere.
 
{{examples|. -..- .- -- .--. .-.. . ... (Examples)}}
 
== [[Anime|.- -. .. -- .]] / .- -. -.. / [[Manga|-- .- -. --. .-]] (Anime &and Manga) ==
* Played with and slightly subverted in ''[[Pokémon Special]]'' when Professor Rowan's lab assistant Roseanne is stuck when the lab is attacked by Yanmegas. She has the idea to turn the lights on and off in order to attract attention from the outside, and thus call for help as the Yanmegas are drowning out her voice due to their supersonic buzzing. [[Idiot Hero|Diamond]] notices this, and tells Sebastian, a butler, about it. Sebastian then proceeds to flash back a message using his Chinchou. Diamond realizes something and points out this is kinda stupid when they really should just head over and check out whats going on. Sebastian agrees.
** In an earlier, Pryce would tap his cane on the ground to non-verbally communicate with his Pokemon. Apparently Pokemon can learn Morse code as well.
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* Amusingly subverted in ''Developers'' (a prequel to ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam]]'' about the construction of the very first Zaku). When they discover the radiation from the mech's experimental reactor is disrupting their wireless communications, they attempt to communicate with the crew in the work area by flashing lights in morse code, only to find out the only thing anybody there knows in morse is how to say "please respond", leading to an [[Overly Long Gag]].
* In ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'', when {{spoiler|Pride and Alphonse}} are both trapped in a huge stone prison made by alchemy, {{spoiler|Pride}}, helpless to escape, grabs a stick and starts banging on Alphonse's helmet. It isn't until it's too late that the heroes realize that he's been banging out the equivalent of a morse-code message, transmitted through the underground tunnels, telling Father their position.
* ''[[Zipang]]'' averts this trope in the scene where a [[World War II]] fuel tanker communicates with the time-displaced ship ''Mirai'' before making a rendezvous with it. The Morse code conversation is done at a realistic speed, the coding of ''Mirai''{{'}}s reply is so regular that it's obvious to the viewer that it's being sent by computer instead of by hand, and both sides of the conversation have to wait for the messages to end before being able to understand them.
 
 
== -.-. --- -- .. -.-. / -... --- --- -.- ... (Comic Books) ==
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** A subtle [[Shout-Out]] there in the title, as a Morse sender's individual style and rhythm of sending is called his or her "fist."
* ''[[The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen]]'': The short story "[[P. G. Wodehouse|What Ho]], [[H.P. Lovecraft|Gods of the Abyss]]" had a one-off joke about [[Jeeves and Wooster (novel)|Bertie]] trying to signal to [[The Jeeves|Jeeves]] by coughing in Morse code. Jeeves came running, but it turned out later that he didn't recognize the signal and just thought Bertie was choking.
* [[Mad]] Magazine's ''Spy vs. Spy'' contained one token line of code, the author's Morse signature "BY PROHIAS".
 
 
== ..-. .. .-.. -- ... (Films) ==
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'''Bind:''' ''I'' don't know.
'''Simpkins:''' Oh, give it here! }}
* In the film ''[[Film/A Night To Remember|A Night To Remember]]'' ships communicate by using Morse Code with Marconi instruments. The trope is averted because the film is set in 1912 when that was standard practice.
** The same is true of most depictions of the ''RMS Titanic'' – the one notable exception being the book ''Futility, or the Wreck of the Titan'' (1898) which failed to predict the 20th century impact of Marconi's apparatus in time of maritime disaster. Titanic was launched in April 1912, so any coverage of the history now inherently becomes a [[Period Piece]].
* In [[Let the Right One In]], Oskar copies down Morse Code from a library book so he and Eli can communicate through the common wall they share for their neighbouring bedrooms. Later, Abby uses Morse to tap out the message 'hi' when knocking on Oskar's door. At the end, when she's in her trunk she and Oskar tap out the word 'kiss' to one another.
* [[U-571]] had a bound German sailor aboard a captured U-Boat tapping out a message with a wrench so that another German warship in the area would hear on Sonar... {{spoiler|I am U-571... destroy me!}}
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* In the Brazilian book ''A Droga do Obediência'' ("Obedience Drug"), a boy gets captured in his school, and requests the captor to go to the bathroom before leaving. There he writes a Morse code message for [[Coolest Club Ever|the detective club he idolizes]] on the wall using... contents of a toilet.
* In ''[[The Hunt for Red October]]'', two submarines communicate with one another by flashing Morse code over the periscope light. In the book, British intelligence officers on the HMS. Invincible are the ones exchanging Morse code with Ramius, and the American submarine just happens to catch part of the message—which allows Capt. Mancuso to deduce part of the situation and realize how highly classified the operation has become.
** Averted in that the only characters who know Morse are dating back to the era in which it was routinely expected for all officers (i.e., Rear Admiral White and Captains Hunter, Ramius, and Mancuso), and some of them are implied to have specifically brushed up on their Morse in preparation shortly beforehand.
* In ''The Crow Road'' by [[Iain Banks]], two lovers communicate their love for each other after sex using Morse code... with their genitals.
* In ''[[The Mysterious Benedict Society]]'', the kids send messages in Morse code. One of them comments that nobody uses Morse code anymore, and Mr. Benedict responds that that's exactly why it's so useful for secret messages.
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** A similar situation happens in ''[[Stargate SG-1|SG-1]]'', when Sam reprograms a Tok'ra beacon to broadcast an SOS, knowing that their only hope of rescue, Daniel and Jacob/Selmak, are also the only two people who would be able to interpret the signal.
*** Curiously absent in another episode. O'Neil is stuck invisible and intangible and can only interact with the others by typing on an alien keyboard that got him into this mess. Despite being a fairly senior Air Force officer (and able to see everything normally) the idea of communicating through Morse never comes up. Instead he's stuck answering yes or no questions by pressing one key for yes and one key for no.
**** Justified: none of the ''recipients'' could be expected to know a damn thing about Morse.
** And again in ''[[Stargate Universe]]''. Eli realizes he could send a message to Destiny with a damaged gate's subspace transponder, but so far he's only figured out how to turn it off and on. Cue [[Eureka Moment]] from Lt. Scott.
*** Although, since he's a hardcore geek and an inveterate gamer, Eli should have thought of it himself.
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== ...- .. -.. . --- / --. .- -- . ... ([[Video Games]]) ==
* The latest{{when}} ''[[Portal (series)|Portal]]'' patch adds an achievement based around collecting the radios and listening to broadcasts being sent by an unknown source. Some of those broadcasts are in Morse code. [[Paranoia Fuel|Have fun.]] {{spoiler|Two of them are entirely an inside joke, one being "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" phrase and the other being Morse code (depicted in text) for "LOL".}}
* ''[[Ace Combat]]'' 5 has an ace who's secretly on your side after {{spoiler|you're betrayed by the 8492nd}} flash morse code. The fact that he can use lights to put out 4 words in roughly 6 seconds (and that your squad can decode them equally quickly) is pretty impressive.
* Several ham radio stations in ''[[Fallout 3]]'' broadcast repeating Morse signals, all of the format "CQ CQ CQ DE (station ID) K." Translated, the message is "All stations, this is (station ID), please respond." Of course, the stations are simply auto-broadcasting, their owners having died centuries ago...
 
 
== .-. . .- .-.. / ... .... .. - (Real Life) ==
* The BBC started off their [[World War Two]] wartime radio news broadcasts with the first four notes of [[Ludwig Van Beethoven|Beethoven's]] Fifth Symphony, in order to symbolize the "V" for victory.
** Morse Code was ubiquitous in both world wars. Often the messages it carried were secret communications from spies or encrypted in some form - the German Enigma code being the most famous (or infamous).
* During the Vietnam War, some US POWs, downed aviators, were forced to make televised statements by their Vietnamese captors. They actually used this method to make it clear that they had been tortured and otherwise coerced into making these statements. When the Vietnamese found out, they stepped it up. The first one was some USN or USAF pilot; he began blinking in the middle of his first such appearance, claiming that the harsh studio lights were hurting his eyes!
** It is believed that Jeremiah Denton and John McCain (both future Senators) were the first to try this.
*** this was referenced on the NPR radio show "Wait! Wait! Don't Tell Me!", in the context of ads for WalMart. ("They show employees... but they're blinking funny."
* Real Life subversion: The British Special Air Service reportedly provides training in Morse code for emergency backup communication, counting on the fact that proficiency in its use is no longer common knowledge.
* Most''YYZ'' everyone(instrumental knows that YYZsong) by [[Rush]] is abouta Torontosubtle Pearsonreference Internationalto Airport, and thatToronto; the opening drum / bass section is "YYZ" in the Morse Code: '''- . - - &nbsp; - . - - &nbsp; - - . .''' as sent by a longwave radio aircraft beacon at Malton's Toronto International Airport (ICAO:CYYZ, IATA:YYZ, Morse beacon: YYZ and a long dash).
* The city of Pittsburgh recently failed at this. [http://www.post-gazette.com/local/city/2009/07/12/A-Morse-Code-typo-lights-city-skyline/stories/200907120242] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fTYzoSDAS4] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iE9yyYQlsc] Later they tried to fix it and [http://gadling.com/2009/07/13/famous-pittsburgh-morse-code-landmark-actually-spells-pitetsbkrr/ replaced "PITETSBKRRH" with "TPEBTSAURGH"].
* In the 1930s and '40s, newspaper columnist Walter Winchell had an extremely popular radio show in which he noisily tapped a telegraph key while he spoke his text into a microphone. His opening catchphrase for each edition contained a reference to "all the ships at sea". Gullible listeners were supposed to be impressed that Winchell could read his text aloud and transmit it in Morse at the same time. Actually, his telegraph transmissions were gibberish.
** People back then were familiar with highly-trained operators in radio and telegraph offices, who could send and listen to messages almost simultaneously and instinctively (they understood the message by listening, no need to write it down). Of course, anyone of these skilled men would register immediately the hoax.
* The RMS ''Titanic'' was one of the first British ships to send the <span style="text-decoration:overline;">SOS</span> distress signal, interspersed with theMarconi's older CQD distress signal. The signal had been standardized since 1908, but most British radio operators still used the older CQD. The first two letters were a standard radio prefix of the time CQ which could be translated as "All Stations", indicating a message for everybody rather than a message with a specific recipient. The D was chosen to be short for "Distress". Reportedly, the radio operator began transmitting "<span style="text-decoration:overline;">SOS</span>" along with CQD in response to another sailor's jokecomment that this [[Foreshadowing|might be his last chance to try it out]].
* If you use Firefox, there's ''Leet Key'' add-on (as the name implies, also capable of converting input into [[Leet Lingo]], among the other things).
 
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... ..- -.-. -.- . .-. ...<ref>LET TVTROPESALL THE TROPES DESTROY YOUR LIFE - SUCKERS</ref>
 
{{reflist}}
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