History Main / KnockingOnHeathensDoor

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 [[ChurchOfSaintGenericus nothing sect-specific appears]], or perhaps some stuff from several denominations do.

* Davan of ''Webcomic/SomethingPositive'' found a couple of Mormons on his doorstep once. He let them stay and talk but informed them that he would continue doing what he would normally be doing at this time. That would be [[ADateWithRosiePalms masturbating]].

* [[StockShticks What do you get if you cross]] a Jehovah's Witness with a Hell's Angel? Someone who knocks on your door and tells ''you'' to fuck off!

** [[HornyDevils Fuchsia & Blue]] and Ariel & Ezekiel [[http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=2868 at once]] (though both pairs specifically visited Slick):

[[quoteright:300:[[Webcomic/CrystalHeart https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jehoshaphat2.png]]]]

[[quoteright:205:[[ComicStrip/{{Bizarro}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/door_knocking.jpg]]]]

* A thinly-veiled ShallowParody of the Jehova's Witnesses show up in ''ComicBook/NinjaNuns'', with their 'god' being ''an anthropomorphic door phone''.

* 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 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.

* [[StockShticks What do you get if you cross]] a Jehovah's Witness with a Hells Angel? Someone who knocks on your door and tells ''you'' to fuck off!

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 a HollywoodJehovahsWitness knocked at his door.

** Marge and Lisa install a new doorbell that plays a novelty tune, and hang around waiting for someone to ring it. At one point two Jehovah's Witnesses walk up to the house, getting Marge's hopes up, but just as they're about to ring the bell one of them suddenly has a revelation -- maybe other people don't appreciate having their lives meddled in? The two Witnesses quit, and the doorbell remains unrung.

[[quoteright:205:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/door_knocking.jpg]]

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

* 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/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.

* Utterly mocked in ''ComicBook/{{Rat-Man}}''. Here's what happened when a HollywoodJehovahsWitness knocked at his door.
-->'''Jehovah's Witness:''' Good morning. Do you know God?\\
'''Rat-Man''': Yes, that's me. What do you want?

* A thinly-veiled ShallowParody of the Jehova's Witnesses show up in ''Ninja Nuns'', with their 'god' being ''an anthropomorphic door phone''.

* In ''Film/LatterDays'', one of the main characters, Aaron, is a young Mormon who goes to L.A. to do missionary work, which includes going door-to-door.
* 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]].
-->'''Evangelist:''' Your souls are in danger!\\
'''Mrs. Peacock:''' Our LIVES are in danger, you beatnik!
* In Creator/AtomEgoyan's ''Felicia's Journey'', a pair of missionaries interrupts the final scene, and without knowing what's going on, likely change what would be the expected way to end the movie to something a little less predictable.

* On the first episode of ''Series/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.
* A sketch of a Swedish comedy show played with it; a door-to-door sales man knocks on a door, and when it opens he is confronted by a smiling couple telling him: "Hi! We're from Jehovah's Witnesses!"

* In ''Series/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!)
** Inverted in one sketch where a pair of Jehovah's Witnesses knocking on Music/MichaelJackson's door, practically begging him to join a ''different'' sect (this was around the time Jackson actually left the group, so maybe it worked?).

* In an episode of ''Series/CriminalMinds'', a woman assumes the duo wearing a suit and knocking at her door are Jehovah's Witnesses. They're FBI agents.

* ''Series/TheGoldenGirls'': When two people come to visit Sophia, Dorothy thinks at first that they're evangelists, saying, "I'm sorry, but I already know Jesus" before closing the door in their faces.
* ''Series/KimsConvenience'': Mr. and Mrs. Kim pretend a big fancy house is theirs and wait at the doorsteps pretending to go inside, so that their new rich friends will leave them alone and not find out about their fib. Then the actual owners open the door and look at the Kims in confusion and disapproval. Not wanting to explain themselves, Mr. Kim pretends to be a door-to-door evangelist and asks them, "Have you accepted the Jesus into your life?" When a similar situation happens with the same house owners later in the episode, Mr. Kim puts on the act again.

* 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.

* Davan of ''Webcomic/SomethingPositive'' found a couple of Mormons on his doorstep once. He let them stay and talk but informed them that he would continue doing what he would normally be doing at this time. That would be [[ADateWithRosiePalms masturbating]].
* [[AffablyEvil The Sphinx]] from ''Webcomic/{{Subnormality}}'' seems to [[http://www.viruscomix.com/page409.html regard them]] as [[spoiler: an inexhaustible source of [[ImAHumanitarian at-home snack]] deliveries]].

* In ''Webcomic/TheUnspeakableVaultOfDoom'', [[http://www.goominet.com/unspeakable-vault/vault/316/ here]].
* ''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.]] For people who worship an evil god they're surprisingly nice; they're even pacifists - when you know that your god will torture you for all eternity, you're not very keen on meeting him, obviously.

* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'':
** 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 ''Series/QuantumLeap''.
** Parodied in another episode. A black Southern woman asks the family if they'd like some pancakes--she's a Jemima's Witness.

** 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 fiction, the lead character often finds [[CoolAndUnusualPunishment 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. [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment For the sake of wiki harmony]], let's leave [[FlameWar the debate]] there.

* For the Mormon variant see the first act of ''Film/{{Orgazmo}}''.

* 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 open-minded 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 lightning bolts]], his conversion remains firmly hypothetical. (Part of it being, of course, that while the co-worker in question clearly doesn't believe in the specific details, he's also clearly serious about finding out, if only for the chance to get into a reasoned debate about the subject.)

* One of the main plotlines of the last season of ''Series/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.

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

* A thinly-veiled ShallowParody of the Jehova's Witnesses show up in ''Ninja Nuns'', with their 'god' being ''an antropomorphic door phone''.

-->'''Al''': *after the doorbell rings* Oh I hope thats a Jehovah's Witness wanting to discuss hours of philosophical observation... [[BatterUp *picks up baseball bat*]]

In fiction, the lead character often finds [[CoolAndUnusualPunishment 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.