History Main / KnockingOnHeathensDoor

The trope name is a pun on Music/TaylorSwift's "Knocking on Heaven's Door".

** In ''Discworld/FeetOfClay'', Visit bursts into TearsOfJoy when his new coworker in the Watch reads the pamphlets and then ''asks for more''. Although as [[spoiler:a golem and therefore entirely proof against lightning bolts]], his conversion remains firmly hypothetical.

* In ''Film/{{Coneheads}}'', the federal immigration officers trying to expose them as [[{{Pun}} illegal aliens]] get into their house by posing as Witnesses. They fare substantially better than most TV [=JWs=] since their talk of the coming end of the world jives with the Coneheads' plans to be the ones who end it.

* The UrExample is from Luke's writings in ''Literature/TheBible'' about the first-century Christian ministry: "And every day in the temple and from house to house they continued without letup teaching and declaring the good news about the Christ, Jesus." --Acts 5:42.
* Members of the Reformed Church of Om in the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' universe. Said religion used to smite all those who didn't believe in Om, but He has mellowed somewhat since ''Discworld/SmallGods'' and now His faithful try to convert the openminded with strategically distributed pamphlets and early morning knocks at the door. Constable Visit (full name Visit-the-Infidel-with-Explanatory-Pamphlets) is one such recurring character (though he has been cautioned about the pamphlets).

** In ''Discworld/FeetOfClay'', Visit bursts into TearsOfJoy when his new coworker in the Watch reads the pamphlets and then ''asks for more''. Although as [[spoiler:a golem and therefore entirely proof against lightningbolts]], his any conversion remains firmly hypothetical.
* In ''[[Literature/ThursdayNext The Eyre Affair]]'', set in a world where classic literature is SeriousBusiness, there's a scene where the protagonist answers the door to somebody who's Witnessing for the proposition that Bacon was the true author of Shakespeare's plays, and it plays out with all the tropes usually attached to a fictional JW visit.

** Inverted in one sketch where a pair of Jehovah's Witnesses knocking on Music/MichaelJackson's door, practically beg him if he'd like to join a ''different'' sect.

** Inverted on a Halloween episode [[note]]The one with The Village People cameoing as themselves and Katey Sagal playing a dual role as The Grim Reaper[[/note]] where Peggy tells Bud and Kelly that they're going to go trick-or-treating at the house of one of Jehovah's Witnesses as revenge for the many times they've been harassed by them.

** In ''Discworld/FeetOfClay'', Visit bursts into TearsOfJoy when his new coworker in the Watch reads the pamphlets and then ''asks for more''.

* A ''ComicStrip/{{Pondus}}'' sunday strip has Pondus getting visited by two door-to-door evangelists (apparently a married couple) who emphasize that the end of the end of the world is coming very soon. Pondus jokingly tells them that at least it means he won't have to pay back the rest of his house loan. The evangelists laugh and, thinking they might have a foot inside, casually admit that they recently took up a rather large house loan themselves. Pondus then points out that [[FridgeBrilliance it means they took up a loan that they never intended on paying back in full]], and threatens to call an economic crime investigator.

* [[http://www.missmab.com/Comics/Vol_114.php This]] ''[[Webcomic/DanAndMabsFurryAdventures DMFA]]'' strip.

->''Hello! My name is Elder Price\\

The most amazing book...''
-->--'''Theatre/TheBookOfMormon''', ''"Hello!"''

So a pair of characters turn up at the doorstep, say something about {{God}}, maybe clutching some folded literature, say something about [[TheEndIsNigh the End Of Times]] with a very small chance of [[HollywoodJehovahsWitness muttering something about a "watchtower."]] Cue humour inducing response.

* A TV skit had a close-up of a finger moving toward a BigRedButton, intercut with a panicking family fleeing for shelter. Instead of launching nuclear armageddon, the button is just a doorbell being run by a Jehovah's Witness.

->''Have you heard the good news about TV Tropes?''

* One of the main plotlines of the last season of ''QueerAsFolk'' is ''Proposition 14'', which would do nothing but make life harder for the gay characters (which is basically [[CastFullOfGay everyone]] on the show) if voted through. [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments At one point]], two middle-aged women who are supporters of Prop 14 come knocking on Michael and Ben's door, talking about "protecting the holy bonds of matrimony" and Michael talks to them for awhile, not letting on that he's gay. He tells them that he's married (he and Ben got married in Canada) and he has two children (they've got a teenage foster son, and Michael is the biological father of their lesbian friends' infant daughter). Then a half-naked Ben shows up, introducing himself as Michael's lawfully wedded husband, and the ladies beat a hasty retreat.

* ''Webcomic/{{Oglaf}}'' featured this with the worshipers of [[GodOfEvil Sithrak]], as they try to spread his word of despair and hatred, for he promises unending torture for everybody after death because he [[HatesEveryoneEqually hates everyone regardless of whether they're good or evil or if they worship him or not]], so why not worship him? The freedom from responsibility is liberating! [[spoiler:For what it's worth, they're completely wrong about Sithrak - they take their doctrine from his Book of Dismay, which he reveals to be nothing more than "teen poetry" he wrote when he was going through an angry phase, and not something he believes or expected anyone else to believe.]]

* In ''Film/{{Coneheads}}'', the federal immigration officers trying to expose them as [[{{Pun]] illegal aliens]] get into their house by posing as Witnesses. They fare substantially better than most TV [=JWs=] since their talk of the coming end of the world jives with the Coneheads' plans to be the ones who end it.

* On the first episode of ''MockTheWeek'''s seventh season, they commented on Michael Jackson's death [[CrossesTheLineTwice in their usual style]]. They noted that being one of Jehovah's Witnesses was possibly the least weird thing about him and pondered whether when he went to meetings if ''they'' pretended to not be in.

* In an episode of ''BlackBooks'', a pair of Jehovah's Witnesses knock on Bernard's door, and Bernard is so desperate for a distraction from the paperwork that he invites them in. He then winds up having to give them hints about what to do next, because it's been so long since anybody let them actually do the witnessing that they've forgotten how it goes. He also more or less converts them to Catholicism.
* In ''SpittingImage,'' we see a Soviet space station, and a man in a space suit knocking on the station (which is hard to do in space). A Russian Cosmonaut opens the door. "Yes, comrade?" "Hi, I'm from the Jehovah's Witnesses -- " (slam!)

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

-->'''Jehovah's Witness''': Good morning. Do you know God?
-->'''Rat-Man''': Yes, that's me. What do you want?
* ''{{ComicBook/Watchmen}}'': In Chapter 10, two Jehovah's Witnesses on bicycles stop at the newsstand, buy a newspaper, and then try to give the newsvendor a copy of ''The Watchtower''. He tells them to get lost. (The fact that the chapter title comes from the lyrics of the Bob Dylan song "All Along the Watchtower" is surely [[DoubleMeaningTitle not a coincidence]].)

[[folder:Film]]
* In ''Film/{{Coneheads}}'', the federal immigration officers trying to expose them as illegal [[IncrediblyLamePun aliens]] get into their house by posing as Witnesses. They fare substantially better than most TV [=JWs=] since their talk of the coming end of the world jives with the Coneheads' plans to be the ones who end it.

-->'''Girl Scout:''' "Would you like to buy some cookies?" (Pan to...)
-->'''Jehovah's Witnesses:''' "Have you heard the good news?"
-->'''Scooby Doo:''' "Yeah, there's [[ComicallyMissingThePoint cookies!]]"

-->'''Evangelist:''' "Your souls are in danger!"
-->'''Mrs. Peacock:''' "Our LIVES are in danger, you beatnik!"

[[folder:Live Action Television]]

[[folder:NewspaperComics]]
* A {{Pondus}} sunday strip has Pondus getting visited by two door-to-door evangelists (apparently a married couple) who emphasize that the end of the end of the world is coming very soon. Pondus jokingly tells them that at least it means he won't have to pay back the rest of his house loan. The evangelists laugh and, thinking they might have a foot inside, casually admit that they recently took up a rather large house loan themselves. Pondus then points out that [[FridgeBrilliance it means they took up a loan that they never intended on paying back in full]], and threatens to call an economic crime investigator.

[[folder: Stand-up Comedy]]
* Swedish comedian Johan Glans has mentioned wanting to find out where a couple of Jehovah's Witnesses live, knocking on their door and saying: "Hi! I'm from the Ordinary People."
* German comedian Michael Mittermeier likes to scare Witness by acting as a exorcist-like possessed man complete with scare music and pea soup as fake vomit.
* Creator/JimGaffigan talks about how uncomfortable it makes even religious people to talk about Jesus. He says that even the pope would say, "Easy, freak. I like to keep work at work."
* Creator/RobinWilliams mentioned at in one stand-up special that he became so burned out on religion that if Jehovah's Witnesses came to the door and asked if he found Jesus, he would like to answer the door naked and say, "No, why don't you help me find him? Come on!"
* Creator/JasperCarrott once hypothesised that if you [[SubvertedTrope actually invited Jehovah's Witnesses in rather than finding inventive ways to get rid of them]], they'd be so shocked that you could brainwash them and build up your own private army.
* Creator/RossNoble has a routine about religion where he considers how this would go with a ''TabletopGame/{{Monopoly}}'' fan in place of the Jehovah's Witness. "Oh, you're busy right now? Okay, I'll just leave the rules."
* Australian filmmaker Brad Carter made a video of himself and a friend going around Salt Lake City knocking on doors with copies of ''Origin of Species''
* Creator/{{Gallagher}} suggested that the government could save money by having missionaries deliver the mail.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Video Games]]
* Used in a scene in Adult InteractiveFiction game ''The Babysitter'' wherein the Witness in question brings along his daughter and then leaves her behind while he makes his rounds. She doesn't fare so well.
* In another InteractiveFiction game ''VideoGame/HeavyRain'', a doctor is [[spoiler:about to kill one of the main characters]] when one of these knocks on his door. While the devout one preaches about the word of god, and the doctor tries to get rid of him as quickly as possible, [[spoiler:the main character is shown in split-screen, desperately trying to pull themselves free of their ropes before the doctor comes back and performs surgery on them with a power drill.]]
[[/folder]]

** One "flashback" had Peter remembering his time as one of Jehovah's Witnesses. The guy answers the door, Peter asks if he'd like to hear about Jesus and the guy says, "Yes." Peter is befuddled and doesn't know what to say, since that's the first time anybody hasn't slammed the door in his face. He then tried to tell the story of Jesus, but he ended up explaining the plot of ''QuantumLeap''.

* In another InteractiveFiction game ''HeavyRain'', a doctor is [[spoiler:about to kill one of the main characters]] when one of these knocks on his door. While the devout one preaches about the word of god, and the doctor tries to get rid of him as quickly as possible, [[spoiler:the main character is shown in split-screen, desperately trying to pull themselves free of their ropes before the doctor comes back and performs surgery on them with a power drill.]]

* ''Webcomic/{{Oglaf}}'' featured this with the worshipers of [[GodOfEvil Sithrak]], as they try to spread his word of despair and hatred, for he promises unending torture for everybody after death because he [[HatesEveryoneEqually hates everyone regardless of whether they're good or evil or if they worship him or not]], so why not worship him? The freedom from responsibility is liberating!

In fiction, lots of evangelical sects will have their appearances in fiction built around the practise of door to door evangelising (with maybe the odd peripheral belief). Jehovah's Witnesses (or at least the [[HollywoodJehovahsWitness Hollywood variety]]) are the ones most frequently shown doing this, partly because [[SmallReferencePools they're the first evangelicals people tend to think of]] and partly because [[TruthInTelevision it's what they do in the real world]]. [[UsefulNotes/{{Mormonism}} Mormons]] are also well known examples. The portrayal is actually broad enough that it sometimes creeps into this broad evangelical Christian depiction where [[NoCommunitiesWereHarmed nothing sect specific appears]], or perhaps some stuff from several denominations do.

* Utterly mocked in ''ComicBook/{{Rat-Man}}''. Here's what happened when an HollywoodJehovahsWitness knocked at his door.

-->'''Scooby Doo:''' "Yeah, there's [[ComicallyMissingThePoint cookies!"]]

* In ''Film/{{Clue}}'', the dinner party/murder mystery (no, real murder) is interrupted briefly as the summation is going on by a bearded door-to-door Evangelist to warn the characters "The kingdom of heaven is at hand!" [[spoiler: Of course, like everyone else in the movie, he is not who he seems to be.]]

* Members of the Reformed Church of Om in the Literature/{{Discworld}} universe. Said religion used to smite all those who didn't believe in Om, but He has mellowed somewhat since ''Discworld/SmallGods'' and now His faithful try to convert the openminded with strategically distributed pamphlets and early morning knocks at the door. Constable Visit (full name Visit-the-Infidel-with-Explanatory-Pamphlets) is one such recurring character (though he has been cautioned about the pamphlets).

-->''Have you heard the good news about TV Tropes?''

* Missionaries of an unspecified sect appear as comic relief in {{Joshiraku}}.

* Mentioned hilariously in ''{{Transmetropolitan}}''.

In fiction, the lead character often finds inventive, clever, or even cruel ways to repel the hapless missionaries. To be fair, it's [[RuleOfFunny often quite funny]], and it's the character's time and doorstep. To be also fair, it may set up the UnfortunateImplications that [[AcceptableTargets it's fine to treat people from minority sects like dicks]] for their beliefs. [[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment For the sake of wiki harmony]], let's leave [[FlameWar the debate]] there.

So a pair of characters turn up at the doorstep, say something about God, maybe clutching some folded literature, say something about [[TheEndIsNigh the End Of Times]] with a very small chance of [[HollywoodJehovahsWitness muttering something about a "watchtower."]] Cue humour inducing response.

In fiction, lots of evangelical sects will have their appearances in fiction built around the practise of door to door evangelising (with maybe the odd peripheral belief). The portrayal is actually broad enough that it sometimes creeps into this broad evangelical Christian depiction where [[NoCommunitiesWereHarmed nothing sect specific appears]], or perhaps some stuff from several denominations do. Jehovah's Witnesses (or at least the [[HollywoodJehovahsWitness Hollywood variety]]) are the ones most frequently shown doing this, largely because [[SmallReferencePools they're the first evangelicals people tend to think of]] and partly because [[TruthInTelevision it's what they do in the real world]]. [[UsefulNotes/{{Mormonism}} Mormons]] are also well known examples.

On TV, the lead character often finds inventive, creative, or even cruel ways to repel the hapless missionaries. To be fair, it's [[ActuallyPrettyFunny often quite funny]], and it's the character's time and doorstep. To be also fair, it may set up the UnfortunateImplications that [[AcceptableTargets it's fine to treat people from minority sects like dicks]] for their beliefs. [[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment For the sake of wiki harmony]], let's leave [[FlameWar the debate]] there.

This can be a form of ActivistFundamentalistAntics. TheMissionary has also been known to do this. If it actually ''works'' on the very first try, it's EasyEvangelism, and a high likelihood you're dealing with an AuthorTract.

This can be a form of ActivistFundamentalistAntics. TheMissionary has also been known to do this. If it actually ''works'' on the very first try, it's [[EasyEvangelism]], and a high likelihood you're dealing with an AuthorTract.

So a pair of characters turn up at the doorstep, say something about God, maybe clutching some folded literature, say something about [[TheEndIsNigh the End Of Times]] with a very small chance of [[HollywoodJehovahsWitnesses muttering something about a "watchtower."]] Cue humour inducing response.

->''"Go therefore and make disciples of people of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy spirit, teaching them to observe all the things I have commanded you."''
-->-- '''Jesus to his disciples, Matthew 28:19, 20'''

OK, here's a test. Go and find every mainstream film that you can that has a scene with a character who is recognisably one of Jehovah's Witnesses. Use these to learn five key facts about Jehovah's Witnesses. You will most likely find that they:

* knock on people's doors.
* believe in Jehovah.
* knock on people's doors to tell them about Jehovah, in pairs.
* believe in Jehovah ''and'' Jesus.
* are not big fans of blood transfusions.

Try to do the same thing for a Mormon, go on, we'll still be here. You've probably found it's a very similar list with the point about blood transfusions being swapped for one about polygamy or magic underwear. In fiction, lots of evangelical sects will have their occurrences and mentions built around the practise of door to door evangelising (with maybe the odd peripheral belief). [[TruthInTelevision While it's what they do in the real world]], on TV, they're the guys who turn up on your doorstep with some leaflets to convert you while the lead character finds inventive ways to repel them. To be fair, it's [[RuleOfFunny often quite funny]] and it's the character's time and doorstep. To be also fair, it may set up the UnfortunateImplications that [[AcceptableTargets it's fine]] to treat people from minority sects like dicks for their beliefs. For the sake of wiki harmony, let's leave [[FlameWar the debate]] there.

So a pair of characters will turn up at the doorstep, say something about God, maybe clutching some folded literature, say something about the End Of Times with a very small chance of muttering something about a "watchtower" and then cue humour inducing reponse. The portrayal is actually broad enough that it sometimes creeps into this broad evangelical Christian depiction where [[NoCommunitiesWereHarmed nothing sect specific appears]] and perhaps some stuff from several denominations do. On the other hand, if the practise of door-stopping is [[ConversationalTroping mentioned in conversation]] at some other point, it will more often be attributed to Jehovah's Witnesses, largely because [[SmallReferencePools they're the first evangelicals people tend to think of]].

See also HollywoodJehovahsWitness.