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Give Me a Sign: Difference between revisions
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Sometimes, when in a moment of great need, a character will cry out to God (or what-have-you) for some kind of sign that shows them what to do, where to go, or even just to let the character know that they are not alone. Often, God is perfectly happy to oblige. The sign can be subtle, or it can be much more obvious. (When [[Played for Laughs]], the sign is usually downright [[Anvilicious]]!)
Subtler examples may fall under [[Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane]]. [[Smite Me, O Mighty Smiter!]] is this trope with a more...belligerent tone.
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== [[Film]] ==
* The literal (traffic) sign from God in ''[[L.A. Story]]'', which tells Steve Martin to "Kiss Her, You Fool."
* Happens in ''[[Monty Python and
* ''[[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.
* ''The Messenger''. Joan finds a sword in a field and decides that it's a message from God. Her anthropomorphized sense of conscience questions her on how she could know that it didn't end up there [[Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane|simply by chance]].
* 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 Fatal|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."
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* ''[[The Grey]]'': After {{spoiler|losing all the members in his party of plane-crash survivors}}, Ottway screams at the heavens for a sign in a "now or never" fashion. A few minutes later, he realizes {{spoiler|he's totally fucked, as he's [[Downer Ending|in the middle of wolves' den]]}}.
* The main character of ''[[Miss Nobody]]'' sees St. George as her guardian angel. After one of her rivals at work is sort of accidentally killed by her, she immediately spots a homeless man with a sign saying, "Call me George," and assumes this is a sign that St. George has her back. However, after noticing her other rivals giving her the stink eye at the funeral, she prays to St. George asking for another sign, just in case the homeless guy was a coincidence. Cue her mother's new boarder arriving, who is the spitting image of St. George...and a detective. Later, when she worries the detective may be on to her, she prays for another sign, and it begins to rain outside. She interprets this as meaning she needs a [[Fall Guy]].
* In ''[[A Very Long Engagement]]'', the protagonist makes a number of private bets with herself that, should an upcoming event happen in a certain way, she'll take it as a sign to continue her quest to locate her MIA boyfriend.
== [[Literature]] ==
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* On ''[[Lost]]'', Locke spends a good amount of his time looking for signs from the island.
* The freak snowfall in the ''[[Buffy]]'' episode "Amends", which prevents Angel's suicide-by-sunlight.
* 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..."
* [[Fringe]] had an example with a white tulip. {{spoiler|Subverted, as it was actually given to Walter by a time traveller.}}
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== [[Theater]] ==
* A non-divine example comes from ''[[Hello, Dolly!]]!'' in which Dolly Levi asks her dead husband Ephraim for a sign that she should marry Horace Vandergelder. Shortly thereafter, Vandergelder quotes Ephraim's favorite aphorism to her.
* 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).
* In ''Shrek [[The Musical]]'', from "Travel Song":
{{quote|'''Shrek''': Why me? Why me?
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== [[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.
* Parodied often in ''[[The Simpsons]]''.
** 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]].
{{quote|"Dear Lord, the gods have been good to me and I am thankful. For the first time in my life, everything is absolutely perfect just the way it is. So here's the deal: you freeze everything as it is, and I won't ask for anything more. If that is okay, please give me absolutely no sign." ''(brief pause)'' Okay, deal. In gratitude, I present you this offering of cookies and milk. If you want me to eat them for you, please give me no sign. ''(brief pause)'' Thy will be done!" ''(Homer sucks down the cookies)''}}
** After Homer realises that he can't afford to send Lisa to an independent school, he walks past a music shop:
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