History Main / TimeZonesDoNotExist

* ''WesternAnimation/ArthurChristmas'' follows Santa's son as he races to deliver a forgotten present to a young girl before sunrise on Christmas morning. He travels all round the world, and it's night everywhere. The writers considered using the different time zones as a plot point to add some tension but decided it was too confusing for young viewers.

* ''Film/JurassicPark3'' has this in reverse, a time difference where there should not be one. The climactic confrontation with the BigBad dinosaur of the movie happens at what appears to be nighttime in Isla Sorna, and when Alan Grant calls Ellie Sattler for help, her home (established through a FreezeFrameBonus to be in the American East Coast) is still in daytime. Isla Sorna is established to be near Costa Rica, which is in the Central Standard Time zone.

* ''Series/{{The Twilight Zone|1959}}'', "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E89ToServeMan To Serve Man]]": While [[spoiler:imprisoned]] on an alien saucer, Michael Chambers demands that the crew tell him what time it is. The response doubles as a MathematiciansAnswer, since it's technically correct ''somewhere.''

'''Alien:''' On Earth it would be 12:00 noon.
* ''Franchise/StarTrek'': This is present in all versions- when a ship arrives at a planet, the place they're heading to on the planet is almost always at day. Similarly, whenever it's necessary to contact someone on a another planet, even if they're on the other side of the Alpha Quadrant, they will be awake and ready to receive a call- they never have to wait for the Klingon Chancellor to get himself presentable because they just called in the middle of the night on his planet.

* Many {{Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game}}s that feature an in-game time usually make no effort to create timezones, regardless of what continent, or even planet that you're in. Having a day-night cycle is usually only used for mechanical purposes such as timing when a certain NPC will spawn. Notable examples include''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'', ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', and ''VideoGame/EverQuestII'', among others. Adding dedicated timezones would just make things needlessly complex to both the players and developers.

* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'' has Robin travelling to what appear to be China to further hone his skills and learn how to defeat Katarou. The episode continuously shifts back and forth from the Titans Tower in America to China where Robin is training, and somehow it's daytime in ''both'' instances.

[[folder:Real Life]]
* UsefulNotes/{{China}}. The entire country observes the same time as capital city Beijing, despite being spread across five hours worth of timezones. At its western edge there's a whopping 3 hours difference across some of its land borders.
* Phenix City, Alabama, a suburb of Columbus, Georgia located on the Alabama-Georgia state line, observes Eastern Standard Time, even though the entire state of Alabama is on Central Standard Time.
* According to some sources, Michiana and Grand Beach, two villages in the southwestern-most corner of UsefulNotes/{{Michigan}} located on the Indiana-Michigan state line between New Buffalo, Michigan and Michigan City, Indiana, observe Central Standard Time due to their close proximity to UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}}, even though all but four Michigan counties[[note]]the four Upper Peninsula counties that border Wisconsin are on Central Standard Time[[/note]] observe Eastern Standard Time.
* [[https://web.archive.org/web/20160112193916/http://timecube.com/ Time Cube]] is best described as a schizophrenic old man's attempt at grasping the concept of time zones. His conclusion is that four days occur simultaneously on Earth at the same time and repeatedly insists that the very concept of time zones is some sort of evil conspiracy (amongst many, ''many'' other things).
* There are periodic proposals to do away with time zones in favor of a single global time, such as Sandford Fleming's original proposal of Cosmic Time and the Hanke-Henry Universal Timezone System. None have yet gained any traction.
[[/folder]]

* In ''Website/{{Neopets}}'', Neopia is an entire planet, but it has only one timezone, called NST (Neopian Standard Time). Perhaps this could be explained because magic explicitly exists on Neopia.

!!Examples

[[folder:Film]]
* In ''Film/{{Armageddon}}'', when the President is giving a RousingSpeech on TV, audiences in different parts of the United States, France, Turkey, and India all seem to be watching the speech at the same time of day. (An audience in China is watching it at night, however.)

* ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerryTheFastAndTheFurry'': The climax features the title characters receiving jet planes so they can race around the world "in 5 minutes.” This causes copious amounts of MonumentalDamage. It is simultaneously daytime for Asia, Europe, and North America.

* ''Series/TheTwilightZOne1959'', "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E89ToServeMan To Serve Man]]": While [[spoiler:imprisoned]] on an alien saucer, Michael Chambers demands that the crew tell him what time it is. The response doubles as a MathematiciansAnswer, since it's technically correct ''somewhere.’'
-->'''Chambers''': What time is it?
-->'''Alien''': There is no time in space. This is to say there is no chronology that can be calibrated.
-->'''Chambers''': I said what time is it, ''what time is it on earth?'' Can you tell me that without an exercise in euclidean geometry? Now, just tell me what time it is on earth.
-->'''Alien''': On earth it would be 12:00 noon.

** Additionally, the nations seem to be perpetually locked in the same seasons, regardless of the planet being confirmed in an [[http://www.avatarspirit.net/interviews.php?id=19 interview]] and ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' to be a round and orbiting a sun.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' and ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'': It will always be the same in-game time no matter what continent [[spoiler: or planet]] you travel to. The writers don't even try to HandWave this, but it's a deliberate AcceptableBreakFromReality: the factor of calculating time zones would complicate things for both the servers and the players without really adding anything to gameplay, except maybe FakeDifficulty for the gathering professions (as various "rare" resources and fish can only be found at certain in-game times).

* AN episode of ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'' has Robin travelling to what appear to be China to further hone his skills and learn how to defeat Katarou. The episode continuously shifts back and forth from the Titans Tower in America to China where Robin is training, and somehow it's daytime in ''both'' instances.

* According to some sources, Michiana and Grand Beach, two villages in the southwestern-most corner of Michigan located on the Indiana-Michigan state line between New Buffalo, Michigan and Michigan City, Indiana, observe Central Standard Time, even though all but four Michigan counties[[note]]the four Upper Peninsula counties that border Wisconsin are on Central Standard Time[[/note]] observe Eastern Standard Time.

* According to some sources, Michiana and Grand Beach, two villages in the southwestern-most corner of Michigan on the Indiana-Michigan state line, observe Central Standard Time, even though all but four Michigan counties[[note]]the four Upper Peninsula counties that border Wisconsin are on Central Standard Time[[/note]] observe Eastern Standard Time.

* UsefulNotes/{{China}}. The entire country observes the same time as capital city Bejing, despite being spread across five hours worth of timezones. At its western edge there's a whopping 3 hours difference across some of its land borders.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' and ''VideoGame/WorldofWarcraft'': It will always be the same in-game time no matter what continent [[spoiler: or planet]] you travel to. The writers don't even try to HandWave this, but it's a deliberate AcceptableBreakFromReality: the factor of calculating time zones would complicate things for both the servers and the players without really adding anything to gameplay, except maybe FakeDifficulty for the gathering professions (as various "rare" resources and fish can only be found at certain in-game times).

[[folder:Fan Works]]
* ''Fanfic/DungeonKeeperAmi'': Averted.
** It's night in some places and not others, so when Snyder is making calls to people all across the world, he has to determine who's even awake to receive them.
** Where it's night in one place, it's day in the opposite side of the world, and is weaponized to kill vampires, who are WeakenedByTheLight, being unable to revive if killed in daylight, so teleporting one halfway across the world makes them vulnerable.
[[/folder]]

* In ''Film/{{Armageddon}}'', when the President is giving a RousingSpeech on TV, audiences in different parts of the United States, France, Turkey, and India all seem to be watching the speech at the same time of day (an audience in China is watching it at night, however).

** This could be justified by the [[spoiler: snap radiating slowly from Wakanda, though that brings up the new question of how it affected the rest of the universe]]
* ''Film/JurassicPark3'': The climactic confrontation with the BigBad dinosaur of the movie happens at what appears to be nighttime in Isla Sorna, and when Alan Grant calls Ellie Sattler for help, her home (established through a FreezeFrameBonus to be in the American East Coast) is still in daytime. Isla Sorna is established to be near Costa Rica, which is in the Central Standard Time zone.

* ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerryTheFastAndTheFurry'': The climax features the title characters receiving jet planes so they can race around the world "in 5 minutes". This causes copious amounts of MonumentalDamage. It is simultaneously daytime for Asia, Europe and North America.

[[folder:Literature]]
* Subverted in ''Literature/DarkShores''. When Lydia touches a xenthier and is teleported to an unknown location, she tries to guess where she's arrived by looking at the position of the sun over the horizon. And that also makes her realize she is now on the other side of the world.
* Time zones should logically exist even on a flat world, depending on the height and relative position of its sun; there should still be times when part of the world is in full light, other parts in twilight and others in darkness. This is barely alluded to on the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}''.
[[/folder]]

* ''Series/TheTwilightZOne1959'', "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E89ToServeMan To Serve Man]]": While [[spoiler:imprisoned]] on an alien saucer, Michael Chambers demands that the crew tell him what time it is. The response doubles as a MathematiciansAnswer, since it's technically correct ''somewhere''.

* ''WesternAnimation/FostersHomeForImaginaryFriends'': Averted in "Foster's Goes to Europe". when Mr. Herriman presents a schedule for gang's European trip, only to take it back for revisions once Mac reminds him of the different timezone.

* Averted in ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' where in one episode, the kids travel at the speed of Earth's rotation to have a super-fun, twenty-four hour day (while somehow avoiding jet lag and sleep-deprivation) by taking advantage of the time zones to always be in daylight all day.

* Subverted in ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'', during the episode ''Misplaced'', while people all over the world are watching Aqualad, Kid Flash and Robin's speeches, there is a different time stamp for the different cities.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'': It will always be the same in-game time no matter what continent [[spoiler: or planet]] you travel to. The writers don't even try to HandWave this, but it's a deliberate AcceptableBreakFromReality: the factor of calculating time zones would complicate things for both the servers and the players without really adding anything to gameplay, except maybe FakeDifficulty for the gathering professions (as various "rare" resources and fish can only be found at certain in-game times).

* In ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'', every single battle at the climax of the movie is shown taking place at the same time, and when [[spoiler:Thanos snaps his fingers]], people are shown in the middle of the day in both the US and Wakanda [[spoiler:disintegrating]].
** The mid-credits scene in ''Film/AntManAndTheWasp'' shows the exact same event happening while it's daytime in San Francisco.

[[folder:Web Animation]]
* During the fourth and fifth seasons, while Team ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'' is on separate continents, many times they are all shown going about their business during the same time of day, and time zones are never mentioned.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Fan Works]]

[[folder: Film]]

** The mid-credits scene in Film/AntManAndTheWasp shows the exact same event happening while it's daytime in San Francisco.

[[folder: Literature]]

[[folder: Live-Action TV]]

[[folder: Video Games]]

[[folder: Web Animation]]

[[folder: Web Original]]

[[folder: Western Animation]]

[[/folder]]

* In ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'', every single battle at the end of the movie is shown taking place at the same time, and when [[spoiler:Thanos snaps his fingers]], people are shown in the middle of the day in both the US and Wakanda [[spoiler:disintegrating]].

* ''Film/JurassicPark3''': The climactic confrontation with the BigBad dinosaur of the movie happens at what appears to be nighttime in Isla Sorna, and when Alan Grant calls Ellie Sattler for help, her home (established through a FreezeFrameBonus to be in the American East Coast) is still in daytime. Isla Sorna is established to be near Costa Rica, which is in the Central Standard Time zone.