History Main / KnockingOnHeathensDoor

--->'''Devil:''' ''[staring at his visitors]'' YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe.

'''Rat-Man''': Yes, that's me. What do you want?

(''pan to...'')\\

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

[[folder: Theatre]]

--> '''Devil''': (staring at his visitors) YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe

-->'''Fuchsia''': Hello. We're from the ''church of mindless self-indulgence''.

--> '''Marge:''' Hmm. I would've feigned interest.

* 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''.

* In the sketch show ''Series/{{Absolutely}}'', two evangelists knock on the door of the [[TheBore notoriously boring]] Calum Gilhooley, and are forced to listen to Calum monologuing about motorbikes. They then turn up in a later sketch, asking if the householders would like to hear about the Suzuki 350 ("It's a brilliant bike -- faster than Jesus!").

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.

* In ''Film/ScoobyDooMonstersUnleashed'', the Scooby gang approach the front door of a suspect, only to fall prey to a booby trap that has already claimed [[AcceptableTargets a Girl Scout selling cookies and two Jehovah's Witnesses]]. They're all unharmed though.

* 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 evangelizing 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.

* 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. 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 a while, 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.
* In the sketch show ''Series/{{Absolutely}}'', two evangelists knock on the door of the [[TheBore notoriously boring]] Calum Gilhooley, and are forced to listen to Calum monologuing about motorbikes. They then turn up in a later sketch, asking if the householders would like to hear about the Suzuki 350 ("It's a brilliant bike -- faster than Jesus!").

* 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!"
* 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 rung by a Jehovah's Witness.

'''Mrs. Peacock:''' Our LIVES are in danger, you beatnik!

* ''Theatre/TheBookOfMormon'' starts with a class of missionaries practicing going door-to-door. And closes with the converts to the new Church of Arnold doing the same.

In fiction, lots of evangelistic sects will have their appearances in fiction built around the practise of door-to-door evangelism (with maybe the odd peripheral belief), most famously [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jehovah%27s_Witnesses Jehovah's Witnesses]] (see the HollywoodJehovahsWitness trope) and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Church_of_Jesus_Christ_of_Latter-day_Saints the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints]] ([[SomeCallMeTim colloquially known]], especially to outsiders, as UsefulNotes/{{Mormonism}}[[note]]Okay, technically "Mormonism" also encompasses a number of other churches: the largest being the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_of_Christ Community of Christ]], but the most notorious being the {{cult colon|y}}ies (such as the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamentalist_Church_of_Jesus_Christ_of_Latter-Day_Saints Fundamentalist Latter-Day Saints]]) that still practice polygamy. But the main LDS Church tends to be thought of as ''the'' "Mormon Church," since it comprises about 98 percent of the Latter Day Saint movement--though ironically, in recent decades they've been ''less'' amenable than other such churches to the "Mormon" label.[[/note]]). The portrayal is broad enough that it sometimes creeps into this broad Christian depiction where [[ChurchOfSaintGenericus nothing sect-specific appears]], or perhaps some elements of several denominations do.

In fiction, lots of evangelistic sects will have their appearances in fiction built around the practise of door-to-door evangelism (with maybe the odd peripheral belief), most famously [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jehovah%27s_Witnesses Jehovah's Witnesses]] (see the HollywoodJehovahsWitness trope) and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Church_of_Jesus_Christ_of_Latter-day_Saints the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints]] ([[SomeCallMeTim colloquially known]], especially to outsiders, as UsefulNotes/{{Mormonism}}[[note]]Okay, technically "Mormonism" also encompasses a number of other churches: the largest being the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_of_Christ Community of Christ]], but the most notorious being the {{cult colon|y}}ies (such as the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamentalist_Church_of_Jesus_Christ_of_Latter-Day_Saints Fundamentalist Latter-Day Saints]]) that still practice polygamy. But the main LDS Church tends to be thought of as ''the'' "Mormon Church," since it comprises about 98 percent of the Latter Day Saint movement--though ironically, in recent decades they've been ''less'' amenable than other such churches to the "Mormon" label.[[/note]]). The portrayal is broad enough that it sometimes creeps into this broad Christian depiction where [[ChurchOfSaintGenericus nothing sect-specific appears]], or perhaps some stuff from several denominations do.

In fiction, lots of evangeliistic 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 evangelistic group 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 Christian depiction where [[ChurchOfSaintGenericus nothing sect-specific appears]], or perhaps some stuff from several denominations do.