Give Me a Sign: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

{{quote|I saw the sign, and it opened up my eyes, I saw the sign...|Ace of Base, ''The Sign''}}

 

{{examples}}

== [[Comic Books]] ==

{{quote|'''Al''': Lord? We both know how strained things have been with us since that whole Vatican incident, but I figured I'd ask just the same. If Wade's serious, if that girl really is going to turn him around, give me a sign, would ya?

''Tosses a basketball over her head. It bounces off the rim, over the roof, and onto an unseen bystander below.''

* ''[[Bubba Ho-Tep]]'' ends with the stars giving Elvis a sign (in ancient Egyptian) telling him all is well.

* In ''[[Bruce Almighty]]'', this happens a couple of times. While he's driving, he asks God for some sort of sign, and then immediately passes by a road sign that reads, "Caution Ahead." He ''again'' asks for a sign from God, and a literal truckload of warning signs immediately passes by his car. Also, when Bruce is shouting his insults at God, his cell phone rings. Even after it gets smashed. Bruce himself tries to engineer these sorts of signs so Grace would come back to him, but they all fail.

* In ''[[The Man With Two Brains]]'' [[Steve Martin]]'s character asks the portrait of his late wife if he should go ahead with marrying his [[Femme Fatale|new crush]]. Cue thunder, lighting and the portrait spinning around while the voice of his wife wails "Nooooo, NOOOOOO!". "... Any Sign at all..." replies Martin.

* In ''[[Orgazmo]]'', the protagonist asks God to give him a sign if God doesn't want him to act in a porn. This is immediately followed by an earthquake that causes a statue of Jesus to fall off his desk and break. Of course, he is completely oblivious, and follows this by asking for "any sign at all."

== [[Live Action TV]] ==

* On ''[[Lost]]'', Locke spends a good amount of his time looking for signs from the island.

* In the finale of ''[[Power Rangers SPD]]'', a guilt ridden Piggy yells to the sky, asking if he did the right thing turning over the Rangers to Emperor Grumm in the previous episode. A lightning bolt then strikes Piggy's trailer, causing it to crash down the hill, completely wrecking it. Piggy resolves then and there to help the Rangers escape.

* The crown of butterflies in ''[[Kings]]''. Though it is a bit ambiguous as to whether this was an actual sign from God, or just the characters interpreting it that way.

* On ''[[Cheers]]'', Diane has taken to a convent after breaking her engagement to Frasier, realizing she loves Sam. After Sam comes to visit her, she asks God for a sign. Sam returns and asks where the men's room is. Says Diane, "Well, that's not exactly the parting of the Red Sea..."

* In the ''[[Supernatural]]'' episode "[[A Day in the Limelight|The Man Who Would Be King]]", Castiel spends the [[Whole-Episode Flashback|whole episode]] praying to God, explaining how he came to work with {{spoiler|Crowley}} in his attempt to stop Raphael from restarting the Apocalypse. At the end of the episode, Cas breaks down, begging his Father to give him a sign that what he's doing is right. {{spoiler|Apparently none comes, as Castiel ends up [[Jumping Off the Slippery Slope]] straight into out-and-out [[Villain Protagonist]] territory.}}

 

== Music ==

* The Fiery Furnaces' "We Got Back The Plague" notes that about the time [[George W. Bush]] was elected, there was an actual case of bubonic plague in New York.

* DMX's "Lord Give Me A Sign."

 

== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==

* This is a [[Running Gag]] in ''[[Candorville]]''. Whenever the reverend asks for a sign, it's always given, and it's always a blackout, presumably signifying God's displeasure at whatever dishonorable scheme the reverend has cooked up to raise money. It turns into a plot point when he asks for a sign if he should reveal that the local voting machines were sabotaged to elect a corrupt candidate—the machines are of a type that wipes its records in the event of a blackout, and only [[Scary Black Man|Clyde]] used a paper ballot, voting for a snide rap star.

 

== [[Theater]] ==

* In French works, often played for laughs by having a swan appear for no good reason (in French, the words for "swan" and "sign" being homonyms).

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* In the [[Don Bluth]] film ''[[Anastasia]]'', when Anya prays for a sign, a dog steals her scarf and runs over to the path to St. Petersburg.

** One notable example is Homer begging God for help, and the phone rings: "This is God... frey Jones. I heard about your story..."

** Another Simpsons example is when Homer asked for [[Genre Savvy|no sign]].

 

== [[Real Life]] ==

 

{{reflist}}