History Main / HellOfAHeaven

%%(ZCE)* OlderThanFeudalism: One version of the classic Indian epic ''Literature/{{Mahabharata}}'' has a very similar scene to the [[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E84TheHunt Twilight Zone example]].

* ZigZagged in ''WesternAnimation/HazbinHotel''. Heaven is an idyllic megalopolis with kind, polite residents but the angels running it suffer from a bad case of LightIsNotGood and are unpleasant {{Control Freak}}s little better than the demons below them. In the SpinOff ''WebAnimation/HelluvaBoss'' it's shown that the CelestialBureaucracy is extremely condescending and perfectly willing to banish their own to {{Hell}} for a single mistake.

** It's then played straight in the series' penultimate episode "Patty": after much trials, tribulations, and ultimately [[spoiler:reforming the afterlife, the heroes are able to officially go to the Good Place, being the first humans to do so in over 500 years... and they quickly find out Heaven is not all that it's cracked up to be. The humans that have already made it there have grown bored from the lack of anything new to do, and getting anything and everything they could ever want [[WantingIsBetterThanHaving has lost its novelty to them]]. The titular Patty herself is Hypatia of Alexandria, who's undergone severe SanitySlippage that's [[TookALevelInDumbass caused her brain to become a puddle of mush]] as she can't even wrap her mind around basic mathematics anymore (in life, she was a brilliant mathematician). Even the [[OurAngelsAreDifferent committee who run the Good Place]] are miserable as they're unable to fulfill their function and are at a loss over how to fix this. Thus, the Soul Squad has to find yet another solution to this issue. After some debate they do - namely by tying back to a philosophical argument from Season 2 that the finite nature of mortal life gives it meaning. The souls of the Good Place are given the option of ending their conscious existence once they feel ready to do so, however long that might take. What happens afterwards isn't entirerly clear, though it's described as "the ocean wave returning to the shore", and is implied to disperse the soul through TheLifestream, with their life energy dispersing across all of humanity. With the exception of Tahani, the entire Soul Squad eventually take this option after several centuries in the Good Place.]].

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS1E28ANicePlaceToVisit A Nice Place to Visit]]" is about a man who goes to Heaven (to his own surprise, as he had been a petty criminal and a selfish, small-minded person in general) to find it's everything he's ever wanted and he is very, very happy about it. For a while. Over time, he slowly starts to lose his mind to boredom as everything is turning out to be exactly the way he planned it out and even if he wanted more of a challenge, it still goes the way he intended. Eventually, he begs his guide to send him to "the other place" as he clearly does not belong in Heaven. Only... [[spoiler:"Heaven? What gave you the idea that you're in Heaven? This ''is'' 'the other place'!" The man is trapped in an IronicHell where he will suffer from an eternity of boredom.]]
** In ''[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E84TheHunt The Hunt]]'', Hyder Simpson tells the gatekeeper that if his dog Rip isn't allowed into Heaven, then it would be no better than Hell. [[spoiler: It is, indeed, Hell. Dog's aren't allowed through the gate because they can smell the sulpher. The REAL Heaven happily welcomes dogs.]]

* Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox Churches teach that Heaven and Hell are ''within the same realm'', which is in the presence of God. The damned would needless to say absolutely hate Heaven, since through their warped, sinful perspective and indifference to their creator, they would see the divine light not as loving but identify it as the fires of hell. It possibly overlaps with GoodHurtsEvil, since being in God's presence is supposed to be one of the rewards for the people in Heaven. Presumably it's harmful to the damned on this view.

* A popular claim among Catholic saints is that the highest realm of Purgatory, often dubbed the "Threshold," or the "Purgatory of desire," works on this principle: there is no fire and it resembles an Earthly paradise, akin to Eden. But being cut off from God alone makes the souls endure unbearable, hell-like torments. Of course, this emphasizes that Heaven is the real paradise.

* In ''Series/{{Angel}}'', the first words we hear from Cordelia in Heaven are: "God, I'm bored."

-->'''Bomber:''' The changing of seventy-two diapers! The projectile sick that splatters in my eyes, my mouth! The hundred and forty-four beady little eyes that are ever upon me--it is not what I expected! It is a cruel trick upon the faithful! I mean Allah Akbar and everything, obviously, but--

* ''VideoGame/{{Blasphemous}}'': Though most people in Cvstodia need no greater stimulus than [[ItsAllMyFault guilt]] or [[BlindObedience faith]] to wish for punishment, there are a few StoryBreadcrumbs mentioning a realm "beyond the Dream" as their {{Martyrdom Culture}}'s own take on {{Heaven}}. You finally go there in the GoldenEnding of ''The Wounds of Eventide'' and, [[ShaggyDogStory sure enough]], it's not much better than the HellOnEarth people endured in life. [[spoiler: Nothing but an endless procession of velvet banners and pavilions wandering forever towards a blinding light that is [[RuleOfSymbolism forever out of reach]]. It vanishes when the [[PlayerCharacter Penitent One]] and [[HeelFaceTurn Crisanta]] destroy the [[GodIsEvil High Wills]], freeing its inhabitants to experience, presumably, a much more desirable CessationOfExistence.]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'''s version of Heaven was so dull to Tenshi Hinanawi that she decided starting an incident on the surface, just so she could get beat up by mortals as punishment, would be more fun. She's also snubbed by the other celestial beings for her unorthodox ascension as a small child (since she hadn't developed the virtues to earn or properly appreciate her place in Heaven).

* [[https://www.sacrimony.com/ Sacrimony]]: Every soul is judged by the goddess of death, and sent to a specific 'district' based on whichever vice or virtue they represent the most; sinners have greater weight in their vices than their virtues, while the virtuous may need some slight moral failings to concentrate on a single virtue they value above all others. The problem is, they're ''all'' treated like mentally-ill patients by said goddess, and she refuses to let them decide where they want to go, [[YouAreWorthHell even if they would rather go to Dusk than stay separated from their family forever]]. The Loyal's district in particular is an outright InfernalParadise. This is implicitly a side effect of the pantheon being psychologically broken by the first apocalypse.

--> '''Freddy:''' Yeah, you got to kill those sometimes.

* In ''Literature/TheSalvationWar'', an afterlife in Heaven means ''eternal menial servitude to the angels.'' Better than the tortures of Hell, but if you were the kind of person who qualified for Heaven you're in for a rude shock. Meanwhile, the famous bounty of Heaven consists entirely of "enough food, good weather, no wars and livable housing", the latter still being hovels by modern standards. One character speculates that when Yahweh closed the gates of Heaven centuries ago, he did it because what it offered was no longer certain to be a paradise compared to Earth.

* ''[[Website/SCPFoundation SCP]]''''[[https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-7179 -7179]]'' is a pocket of spacetime centered on a tropical island, which a few deceased individuals observed by the Foundation have traveled to after death. It's a seeming paradise where people are in perfect health, the weather is a constantly comfortable EndlessDaytime, and anyone there is offered all the vices one could ever want. And that's it; the realm never changes, the people there are mindless automatons with no will of their own and there's no way to leave, not even dying. While also there's no way to communicate with anyone trapped there, signals can be sent to us from them, which is how the Foundation documented one subject's experience. This is also how they found that [[spoiler: a factorial of ''One Googol years'' [[note]] That's a variable multiplied by every single number between one and ten to the hundredth power [[/note]] in SCP-7179 is equal to one second in our world.]]

* On ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' Satan got God to do him a favor: let Saddam Hussein into Heaven, which is otherwise populated entirely by Mormons. Being surrounded by Mormons was torture to Hussein. Later on, Saddam [[spoiler:took over and started building [=WMD=]s]].
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
** In the episode "I'm Going to Praiseland", a gas leak causes people to have visions of their own personal Heaven. [[DiscoDan Disco Stu's]] vision is, obviously, a nightclub full of disco music, dancers... and Music/FrankSinatra.
--->'''Sinatra:''' For me, [[IronicHell this is Hell]]. Ya dig, pally?
** In one of the "Treehouse of Horror" Halloween episodes, Ned Flanders is killed and as he lays on the ground bleeding out, he announces that he can see Heaven. He is very surprised when Confucius and Milton Berle are there to greet him.
--->'''Ned:''' Boy, have ''I'' been barking up the wrong tree. ''[dies]''
** When Homer erroneously predicts Armageddon in "Thank God It's Doomsday" after seeing a ''Film/LeftBehind'' movie and the Springfield residents are infuriated when it doesn't occur like he predicted[[note]]It turns out he miscalculated ''when'' it would occur as he forgot to include Jesus among the attendants at the Last Supper when making his calculations and when he tries to explain it to the others, they just think he's CryingWolf[[/note]], he gets taken to FluffyCloudHeaven in the rapture, only to be miserable knowing that his family and friends are suffering on Earth. He starts vandalizing Heaven, persuading God to rewind time ("Superman did it!") and postpones the end of the world.
** In an episode where Bart and Homer convert to Catholicism, Marge is at first happy they found religion, but Reverend Lovejoy says that different faiths means different afterlives. Marge then [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4IletJ7-Tw imagines herself]] alone and miserable in Protestant Heaven, which is filled entirely with upper-class [[WhiteAngloSaxonProtestant WASPs]] playing tennis and croquet, while Homer and Bart party it up for all eternity with the Irish, Italians, and Mexicans in Catholic Heaven.
* An episode of ''Bob and Doug'' had an old man die and go to ''dog'' heaven. It doesn't seem so bad at first, but it eventually does get annoying.

* On ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'', "The Beast With A Billion Backs", Leela insists the FluffyCloudHeaven the sentient universe Yivo brought the whole population of the universe to is actually a bad place to live, but its implied she's just [[CommanderContrarian complaining for the sake of it]]. "Okay, I admit that everyone's happy, but it's all so wholesome. And that's what's wrong with heaven! It's boring! There's no sleaze!" Naturally, this observation is [[InstantlyProvenWrong immediately followed]] by everyone running off to Mattress Island to indulge in a perfect jealousy-free orgy of IdealizedSex.
* In a gag in ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', a jihadist suicide bomber arrives in FluffyCloudHeaven ready to meet his 72 virgins. A second later we see a bunch of [[NerdsAreVirgins guys on laptops]] playing ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering''. The bomber's response, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqqK4ft7kZ8 "OSAMA!!!"]]
* Parodied in ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken'' where a man is killed by a car accident and arrives in a Heaven riddled with pedophiles (his creepy uncle), murderers ("I was a serial killer! But I repented in prison and went to Heaven!"), crusaders ("I killed hundreds in the name of our Lord!") and ''Adolf Hitler'' ("I'm just as surprised as you are"). He can't handle that it's so lax to get in and is sent back to Earth by an angel... [[CameBackWrong back into his dead mangled body]].

%% Image removed per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1613949734095384500
%% Please start a new thread if you'd like to discuss a new image.

* An odd example occurs in ''Manga/PuellaMagiOrikoMagica'' in the epilogue, where [[spoiler:Oriko is so burdened by guilt from an act she committed in a past life that she can't move without the help of her accomplice, Kirika]].

* ''Rhudiprrt: Prince of Fur'' starts out like this. The recently deceased human protagonist refuses to follow his "spirit guide" to the human afterlife (heavily implied but not quite outright stated to be FluffyCloudHeaven) upon discovering that he won't get to meet his beloved pet cat there again because animals aren't allowed in, and ultimately ends up on the planet of anthropomorphic cats where she has been reincarnated -- in the body originally belonging to the title character. (A flashback in a later issue shows ''another'' inhabitant of the human afterlife complaining about the place being boring as well.)

* Subverted in ''ComicBook/TheTransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye''. The Afterspark, when first encountered, turns out to be just generally kind of boring. Some people, such as Cyclonus, get what they most want, but Rodimus is depressed that he didn't get to finish off Getaway first, Ratchet refuses to accept it from the get-go, and Whirl cracks that if he'd known death was like this [[DeathSeeker he wouldn't have bothered courting it]]. [[spoiler:And then it turns out that they're not actually in the Afterspark at all; it's a medical facility, specialising in palliative care and euthanasia, that's gone badly out of control and is having a hard time providing a plausible afterlife to please all of Team Rodimus; it gets even worse when the Scavengers turn up and collapse the whole procedure.]]
-->'''Rodimus:''' Dunno about you guys, but I'm giving the Afterspark a big thumbs down. Two Matrixes out of five. Would not visit again.

* In one strip of ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'', Calvin wonders if there are tigers in heaven, since it would be impossible to be happy if one was constantly under threat of a tiger attack, but heaven would be bland if there were no tigers at all. Finally, he guesses that maybe tigers just don't eat people in heaven, but Hobbes complains that the tigers wouldn't be happy.

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/AllDogsGoToHeaven'':
** The first film features a bit of this; Charlie is shocked to learn that in heaven there are no surprises, and sings about how he'd prefer to live unpredictably.
** ''WesternAnimation/AllDogsGoToHeaven2''. After the events of the first movie the dog Charlie B. Barkin is in Heaven. However, he's bored with the place and wants to return to Earth. He gets his chance when Carface (Charlie's enemy) steals Gabriel's Horn and goes back to Earth. Charlie is sent after him on a mission to retrieve the Horn.

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* ''Film/WhatDreamsMayCome'' has a doctor who goes to heaven after a car accident. Some time later he finds out that his wife, consumed by grief at his death and those of their children (who had died prior to him) committed suicide. Because the afterlife is self-constructed, her suicide means she is too wrapped up in grief and misery to join him in the Heaven he has been building, instead creating a dark corner of Hell in which to punish herself (forever). Without her, Heaven just ain't all that heavenly, and so he decides to go to hell to retrieve her, all Orpheus-style. [[spoiler: He even decides to stay with her there when it becomes clear that even he can't ''save'' her. Ironically enough, this HeroicSacrifice snaps her out of it and she ends up saving them both after he's given up hope]]

* Creator/CSLewis:
** After comparing Heaven and Hell, most of the damned in ''Literature/TheGreatDivorce'' choose Hell. This is less because Heaven's a bad place and more because going there means that they have to give up their sins, which most are unwilling to do.
** In ''The Problem of Pain'', he puts forth that the reason people go to Hell is because their own actions have warped their minds to the point that Heaven ''would'' be Hell to them.

** Twain's short story ''Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven'' lampoons the cloud and harp heaven -- his story's heaven gives the newly-arrived people a chance to try this, since it's what they expect, to get it out of their system. They are quickly bored by it and ask if there is anything else.
** He spoofs the trope again in ''Literature/AdventuresOfHuckleberryFinn'' when Huck gets a lesson on heaven from Miss Watson and is deeply unimpressed by the idea of wearing a white robe and playing a harp for eternity. When he asks her whether his friend Tom Sawyer will be there and she responds with an emphatic negative, he's glad because he figures he won't be there either.

* ''Series/Lucifer2016'': Eve, the first woman and wife of Adam, ''hated'' being stuck in Heaven because it was so boring. She tried to make her afterlife more interesting by greeting the new arrivals but their stories about life on Earth made her realise how much she was missing out on. When she finds her way back to Earth she promptly becomes TheHedonist to make up for lost time.
* In ''Series/GoodOmens2019'', Heaven is shown to be a sterile, soulless place run by {{Jerkass}} angels that's little better than Hell which at least doesn't pretend to be a good place.

* A minor example in Music/WeirdAlYankovic's [[Music/BadHairDay "Everything You Know Is Wrong"]]. The narrator dies in the final verse, and almost doesn't get into Heaven because he doesn't meet the dress code. St. Peter decides to let him in anyway, but assigns him the room next to the noisy ice machine for all eternity (implying that Heaven is basically a cheap motel), and screams the chorus to the song outside his room every day.
* Played for dark laughs in Music/{{Sparks}}' song "Here in Heaven", narrated by the ''successful'' half of a suicide pact.
* The Music/TalkingHeads song "Heaven" describes Heaven as being rather monotonous. "Heaven is a place where nothing ever happens..."
* The Hank Williams Jr. Song "If Heaven Ain't a Lot Like Dixie".
* The premise of the Music/SonataArctica song "Alone in Heaven" focuses on the potential loneliness of heaven. "Can this be heaven, if my best friends burn in hell?"
* Music/TownesVanZandt's "You Are Not Needed Now": "heaven ain't bad but you don't get nothing done."
* ''Frazier Chorus- Heaven'' is about exactly this. As one stanza says:
--> "nobody's happy in Heaven, and that God is a bore and his son is annoying as well. Of the games you could play you're stuck with Monopoly day after day, you'd be just as happy in hell"

* After [[NewGamePlus Ascension]] was introduced in ''VideoGame/KingdomOfLoathing'', up until a revamp in May 2011 Valhalla was just a waiting room for adventurers who had Ascended, where they could either reincarnate and start again as a level 1 adventurer or go through a few non-combat adventures about how boring the afterlife is: the restaurants serve nothing but tasteless health food (rice cake, to be exact), and there's nothing to do but play card games (which are rendered pointless by the fact that everyone plays for infinite stakes with infinite amounts of money, and in some cases infinite amounts of cards), chat with your ancestors (who are largely jerks), or contemplate the infinite (which at least leads to you getting stoned, [[ChessWithDeath playing Battleship with Death]], fooling around with a Magic 8-Ball, or indulging in a parody of Film/TheMatrix).

* ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'''s version of Heaven was so dull to Tenshi Hinanawi that she decided starting an incident on the surface, just so she could get beat up by mortals as punishment, would be more fun. She's also snubbed by the other celestial beings for her unorthodox ascension as a small child (since she hadn't developed the virtues to earn or properly appreciate her place in Heaven).
* ''VideoGame/Afterlife1996'' makes heaven look like a cross between an upmarket retirement home and a very expensive but slightly tacky theme park. There's an actual game mechanic about siphoning "ad infinitum" from the rocks scattered around the place (because they're infinitely heavy; apparently ThePowersThatBe had to test the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omnipotence_paradox Omnipotence Paradox]] a whole lot and just left them lying around afterwards) to make everything ''feel'' new and interesting all the time, which is [[GettingSmiliesPaintedOnYourSoul really kind of creepy]] when you think about it.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Hades}}'', Zagreus' journey to escape the Underworld takes him through [[WarriorHeaven Elysium]]. There, Zagreus meets Patroclus, who spends his days utterly miserable at the fact that he's stuck in a "heaven" populated by violent and bloodthirsty "heroes" who spend all day fighting instead of the ''good'' people he loved while he was alive, especially his lover Achilles (who, in bitter irony, [[spoiler:pledged his service to the House of Hades for eternity in exchange for his own place in Elysium to be given to Patroclus ]]). Luckily, [[spoiler:Zagreus can reunite the two, which [[YouAreWorthHell cheers Patroclus up immensely]]]].

* ''Webcomic/ASofterWorld'' [[http://asofterworld.com/index.php?id=965 number 965.]]
-->''In Heaven, everything is fine? Ugh.

* In one strip of ''Webcomic/TheNonAdventuresOfWonderella'', Wonderella [[http://nonadventures.com/2011/01/29/heaven-can-grate/ ends up in Heaven]], but wills herself back to life after being unable to deal with the fact that in Heaven everyone wears sandal socks.
* [[https://www.sacrimony.com/ Sacrimony]]: Every soul is judged by the goddess of death, and sent to a specific 'district' based on whichever vice or virtue they represent the most; sinners have greater weight in their vices than their virtues, while the virtuous may need some slight moral failings to concentrate on a single virtue they value above all others. The problem is, they're ''all'' treated like mentally-ill patients by said goddess, and she refuses to let them decide where they want to go, [[YouAreWorthHell even if they would rather go to Dusk than stay separated from their family forever]]. The Loyal's district in particular is an outright InfernalParadise. This is implicitly a side effect of the pantheon being psychologically broken by the first apocalypse.
* ''Webcomic/SaturdayMorningBreakfastCereal'':
** [[http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=2568 This strip]] theorizes that Heaven is this for St. Peter.
** According to [[https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/heaven-2 this one]] it's only hell for philosophers who overthink the ThisIsntHeaven trope.
** [[https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/heaven This one]] has this trope as the reason a character doesn't believe in Heaven, until his friend convinces him by saying it's the kind of place where everyone knows the intentions behind your screwups instead of jumping to conclusions.

* ''Webcomic/ImTheGrimReaper'': God was born without emotions and only evolved them later on with a poor understanding of how they work. As such, he is unable to relate to his creations, resulting in UnfeelingHeavens.
** Brooke got into purgatory, which is still considered paradise to some because it's a lush environment without the stench of death and you get to talk to a bunch of other non-saint non-sinners... but other than that, it's no different than the first circle of Hell; pointless, endless, and empty. Brooke decided to become a Reaper just so he could have something, anything, to work towards, and used getting his sister out of Hell as an excuse for his hard work.
** The lower levels of Heaven are pleasant enough, but outsiders that learn details about the higher levels of heaven find them disturbing. As you get higher, the residents start showing signs of GettingSmiliesPaintedOnYourSoul. At the second highest level, people just exist in a state of perpetual bliss, doing nothing. At the ''highest'' level, people go through CessationOfExistence, because while God values virtue up to a point, God has a LackOfEmpathy and considers anyone ''too'' good to be worthless to their plans.

** It's then played straight in the series' penultimate episode "Patty": after much trials, tribulations, and ultimately [[spoiler:reforming the afterlife, the heroes are able to officially go to the Good Place, being the first humans to do so in over 500 years... and they quickly find out Heaven is not all that it's cracked up to be. The humans that have already made it there have grown bored from the lack of anything new to do, and getting anything and everything they could ever want [[WantingIsBetterThanHaving has lost its novelty to them]]. The titular Patty herself is Hypatia of Alexandria, who's undergone severe SanitySlippage that's [[TookALevelInDumbass caused her brain to become a puddle of mush]] as she can't even wrap her mind around basic mathematics anymore (in life, she was a brilliant mathematician). Even the [[OurAngelsAreDifferent committee who run the Good Place]] are miserable as they're unable to fulfill their function and are at a loss over how to fix this. Thus, the Soul Squad has to find yet another solution to this issue]].

** [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in that the version of "Heaven" Susie and others are in is implied to be a preliminary stage before [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence the soul moves on]]. Although it's a wonderful place in theory--[[RealityWarper it is shaped by the desires of its inhabitants]], so that Susie is able to attend [[HighSchoolRocks an idealized version of the high school she looked forward to entering while she was alive]]--it's inherently a place for those who have yet to let go of their old lives and who have not yet ceased to watch their living friends and family carry on without them. Only by resolving these issues can Susie go to the true Heaven, and [[MundaneAfterlife she's working with an assigned psychiatrist to that end]].

* In ''Videogame/{{Helltaker}}'', the protagonist can accidentally end up in Heaven if he picks the wrong choice when talking to Azazel. While a nice place, the whole point behind going into Hell in the first place was to get a harem of demon girls, which is impossible now that he's in Heaven. [[PuttingOnTheReich Also, the angels are dressed in very familiar clothing]].

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* One ''WebComic/{{HATEFARM}}'' strip shows an Atheist let into heaven, as "there was a special on." However, he has to spend the rest of forever talking to a Jehova's Witness. There is FunnyBackgroundEvent of Jesus trying extremely hard not to laugh at him.

* In ''Film/FiftyPercentGrey'', Heaven is an endless grey plain, marked only by a fancy TV explaining where you are and why. [[spoiler:Purgatory and Hell are exactly the same, except the TV is cheaper and the explanation is different.]]

* The poem Paul Bunyan, by ''Creator/ShelSilverstein'' has this line, right after the titular character emerges from the grave.

* In the Bible, Salvation is a free gift, ''but rewards are not''. You can be saved for accepting the Messiah, but all your achievements are burned in hellfire. Failing to do any good works in life, or following the saviour's example, makes you the Least in Heaven. You don't get any of the Five Crowns from God, none of the additional honours The Son may want for you. You end up little more than a servant in paradise, and don't inherent any authority or treasures that the children of God do.

* Salvation is a free gift, ''but rewards are not''. You can be saved for accepting the Messiah, but all your achievements are burned in hellfire. Failing to do any good works in life, or following the saviour's example, makes you the Least in Heaven. You don't get any of the Five Crowns from God, none of the additional honours The Son may want for you. You end up little more than a servant in paradise, and don't inherent any authority or treasures that the children of God do.

** The lower levels of Heaven are pleasant enough, but outsiders that learn details about the higher levels of heaven find them disturbing. As you get higher, the residents start showing signs of GettingSmiliesPaintedOnYourSoul. At the second highest level, people just exist in a state of perpetual bliss, doing nothing. At the ''highest'' level, people go through CessationOfExistence, which God [[BlueAndOrangeMorality considers the greatest possible reward]] for the virtuous.

* A minor example in Music/WeirdAlYankovic's "Everything You Know Is Wrong". The narrator dies in the final verse, and almost doesn't get into Heaven because he doesn't meet the dress code. St. Peter decides to let him in anyway, but assigns him the room next to the noisy ice machine for all eternity (implying that Heaven is basically a cheap motel), and screams the chorus to the song outside his room every day.

[[folder:Real Life]]
* As far as Creator/ChristopherHitchens is concerned, [[GodIsEvil if there was a Heaven, it wouldn't be any better than Hell]]. Specifically, his view is that, if the Abrahamic religions are accurate, "you'll get tapped on the shoulder and told 'Great news, this party's going on forever, and you can't leave. You've got to stay, the Boss says so, and he also insists that you have a good time.'" In other places, he described heaven as an even more oppressive version of UsefulNotes/NorthKorea.
* Creator/IsaacAsimov [[http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Isaac_Asimov once said:]]
-->"I don't believe in an afterlife, so I don't have to spend my whole life fearing hell, or fearing heaven even more. For whatever the tortures of hell, I think the boredom of heaven would be even worse."
* UsefulNotes/NeilDegrasseTyson tweeted:
-->"If there is a cat heaven, and there are mice in cat heaven, then it must be mouse hell."
* Discussed in ''Website/AlterNet''[='=]s [[https://www.alternet.org/10-reasons-christian-heaven-would-actually-be-hell "10 Reasons Christian Heaven Would Actually Be Hell"]]
[[/folder]]

* Inverted in the WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue of ''Film/LittleNicky'', for Nicky's two friends John and Peter. They die in a plane crash shortly after the events of the movie and get sent to Hell where they are shown "having never been happier" as they get to crash in Nicky's old room with infinite access to alcohol, drugs, and heavy metal music.

* The Twilight Zone episode ''[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS1E28ANicePlaceToVisit A Nice Place To Visit]]'' is about a man who goes to Heaven (to his own surprise, as he had been a petty criminal and a selfish, small-minded person in general) to find it's everything he's ever wanted and he is very, very happy about it. For a while. Over time, he slowly starts to lose his mind to boredom as everything is turning out to be exactly the way he planned it out and even if he wanted more of a challenge, it still goes the way he intended. Eventually, he begs his guide to send him to "the other place" as he clearly does not belong in Heaven. Only... [[spoiler:"Heaven? What gave you the idea that you're in Heaven? This ''is'' 'the other place'!" The man is trapped in an IronicHell where he will suffer from an eternity of boredom.]]

* The Twilight Zone episode [[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS1E28ANicePlaceToVisit A Nice Place To Visit]] is about a man who goes to Heaven to find it's everything he's ever wanted and he is very, very happy about it. For a while. Over time, he slowly starts to lose his mind to boredom as everything is turning out to be exactly the way he planned it out and even if he wanted more of a challenge, it still goes the way he intended. Eventually, he begs his guide to send him to "the other place" as he clearly does not belong in Heaven. Only... [[spoiler:"Heaven? What gave you the idea that you're in Heaven? This ''is'' 'the other place'!" The man is trapped in an IronicHell where he will suffer from an eternity of boredom.]]

* There is a creepypasta where a soul ascends to Heaven and is captivated by its majesty and beauty, only to soon discover that the fate of all who ascends to Paradise is to spent eternity just mindlessly praising God (a reference to actual scripture by the way), with an angel telling him this is mankind's sole purpose of existence, and the main character notices that many souls have long since resorted to endlessly repeating God's name rather than actual worship. And Hell is almost exactly the same, except you're also on fire.

* Used in the "Captain Stormalong" segment of ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfMarkTwain''. Captain Stormalong of California, Earth, accidentally finds himself in an ''alien'' heaven, which is shown as a loud, colorful nightclub full of bizarre creatures, and as a somewhat conservative human from the late 1800's, it utterly overwhelms Stormalong. He's eventually ushered to his own Christian heaven, which...isn't really all that great either. It's portrayed as a solemn, peaceful place of worship where you can't even raise your voice.
--> '''Stormalong''': Give me a cloud! I'm alright now-

--> '''Stormalong''': Um... I think?