History Main / RightOnQueue

-->'''Nate''': "I could get older. Pancakes could disappear!".

* There is an episode of ''Series/DrakeAndJosh'' where most of the episode is about the brothers (and Megan) waiting in line for a rollercoaster. [[spoiler: They finally get to ride,]] but beforehand, they are sent to the back of the line (if memory serves, twice -- once for cutting in line, once for fighting), get into a fight with the mascot, and get stuck by a bratty kid with a mom who won't do anything about her child's behavior.

* Played for drama in ''VideoGame/{{Obsidian}}'', with the Bureau Realm's "Time Face" holding a long, empty queue line, and several benches around the area, all leading up to a booth marked as the department of "Immediate Action", and you have to go here to get a document approved to fix the bridge to the Bureau Chief's office. But when you hand the form over, you have to fix the Bureau's clock, only to find that after you do this, [[spoiler: a built-up backlog causes the approval to take ''a year'' to go through. And at that point, the [[TVHeadRobot Vidbot]] manning the booth closes it.]]

* At the 2010 Nuit Blanche Art Festival in Toronto, there was an exhibit consisting of a sign encouraging people to "line up here!". What people didn't realize unless they read the guidebook was that [[TrueArtIsIncomprehensible the line itself was the art piece, and in reality it led nowhere]].

* In the ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode "Gridlock" people are in their "cars" for years and decades on end, but that is because [[spoiler:the entire city above them had died]].

* On ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'', Ted and Marshall go to a concert and get high on... [[UnusualEuphemism sandwiches]], then leave their seats to go buy nachos. They get lost, and keep mistaking the line to the women's restroom for the nacho line.

* One invention exchange on ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' involved a fold-up mirror you could hang on someone's neck so that you can primp whilst standing in line for a movie etc. "Don't get ready to go until you're already there!"

* On ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'', when Crowley becomes the new King of Hell, he dispenses with the traditional FireAndBrimstoneHell and instead turns it into an endless queue where condemned souls wait in line for eternity. According to him, many people who end up in Hell are sadomasochists who are TooKinkyToTorture with the usual methods, but ''no-one'' likes waiting in line.

'''Crowley:''' Nothing. They go right back to the end again. That's efficiency.

* One episode of ''Series/WillAndGrace'' revolved around Will waiting in line for Barry Manilow tickets, and a little later waiting in line at a coffee house to get the key to the men's room. In order to do the second thing he gets Grace to hold his place in line, and for various reasons she delegates to Karen.

* ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'' had an episode queueing for a table in a restaurant. And then there was the Soup Nazi episode, but that queue moved reasonably fast and efficiently; there, the joke was the abuse everyone was willing to put up with from the Soup Nazi, because his soup was ''just that good''. In RealLife, the line moved fast ''because'' the Soup Nazi yelled at people who took too long to order. Hungry people stuck at the end of a forty-person line populated by [[AcceptableTarget cornfed tourists]] probably felt he had a point.

* At the 2010 Nuit Blanche Art Festival in Toronto, there was an exhibit consisting of a sign encouraging people to "line up here!". What people didn't realize unless they read the guidebook was that the line itself was the art piece, and in reality it led nowhere.

If people ''plan'' for a ridiculously long wait in line, it's a TicketLineCampout. If the queue uses sequential tickets instead of simple position in line, it's TakeANumber.

-->-- '''Arthur Dent''', ''Film/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy''

* Arthur and co. in the film version of ''Film/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'', queuing to petition for Trillian's release from their jail.

* ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'': In ''Literature/SoLongAndThanksForAllTheFish'', Fenchurch explains that her parents named her for a London railway station because they conceived her in the ticket queue. The fact that she's Arthur's LoveInterest and they have lots of sex in that book actually makes the line from the movie HilariousInHindsight.

* ''Videogame/Afterlife1996:'' The "Switchback Mountains" Envy punishment initially seems very simple: Just several queues starting at the very bottom of an enormous mountain, and once you reach the top, you're getting right out of Hell. The trick comes in a bit of applied Helltech making sure all the adjacent lines look like they're moving faster than yours. And since this is a punishment for the Envious, the ensuing utter chaos as they try to skip lines, cut in and even throw hands over their position in the queue ensures this is more of a SelfInflictedHell than most. It's explicitly stated you'd be out in about a year if you just stayed put, but most of the Envious take thousands of years if they ever even get there.

[[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/s2e13_miles_of_wait_lines_around_the_goblin_dogs_truck.png]]]]

** There's yet ''another'', from one of the latest season's episodes: Marge and Homer are waiting in line for a new marriage certificate, when they both decide to get married ''properly'', they both go to leave, when they're accosted by a security guard, telling them that ''that's'' the line to leave (cut to a line as long as the rest).

* In ''Series/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch'', Hilda and Zelda go to the Magical Emergency Department in order to save Harvey from the [[IAmAHumanitarian Wicked Witch]] only to be met with a line. They inquire an elderly woman as to how long the wait is and are told (in a rather senile tone) that the woman's son is 58 years old. When Hilda points out that doesn't answer her question, the old woman informs her that said son was born in the line. Cue various asundry waiting and bureaucratic jokes.

** One song is about some [[CluckingFunny chickens]] being taught how to wait in line.

An hour or so later, by which time the queue has moved forward by about half a block, he returns. "What happened?" his friend asks. The man shakes his head. "You think '''this''' is a long queue?"
* One joke involves a teenage boy getting ready to take his girlfriend to the prom and finding a long "tux line", "flower line", and "limo line" when he buys the things, but when he goes to get some punch, there's ''no punch line''.

* ''[[http://debbieohi.com/waitingforfrodo/ Waiting for Frodo]]'' is all about how a group of friends queue up months in advance to watch the ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'' movies. A ''[[http://debbieohi.com/waitingforbilbo/ Waiting for Bilbo]]'' comic was also started but the queue seems to be moving veeeery slowly.

** In "Mall of Duty", Lincoln and his younger sisters are waiting in line to get one of Lincoln's books signed. The girls are very bored, and Lincoln tries entertaining them with smoothies and [[SomethingBeginningWithBoring games of I Spy]], but they don't find those very interesting. He also tries cutting in line by bribing the man in front of him with a banana milkshake, but [[PlotAllergy the guy is allergic to bananas]].

* In Creator/LarryNiven and Creator/JerryPournelle's ''Literature/{{Inferno}}'' (and the original ''Literature/TheDivineComedy'', though Niven plays up the humor and absurdity considerably more) people stand in long lines waiting to be judged in Hell.

*** Fast Pass is a bit of a [[ZigZaggingTrope zig-zagged example]]. On the one hand, it gives a specific time to get in a much shorter line. On the other hand, you ARE essentially standing in line for the right to stand in line. On a THIRD hand, certain rides are not connected to the rest of the Fast Pass system and do not keep track of the "one pending Fast Pass at a time" rule; with inside knowledge of which ones and enough LoopholeAbuse, you can have two or three Fast Passes going on at all times.

* Ride/AltonTowers offers fastpasses which let you jump to the front of the line, which unlike Disney Theme Parks's, can be used at any time, and also unlike Disney fastpasses, [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney which you have to pay for.]]

* {{VideoGame/Papers Please}}: Every in-game day a huge queue forms of citizens eager to gain access to Arstotzka and it's up to the player to sort through them.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Postal}} 2'' there is a queue at the bank when you go to cash your pay check on Day 1. Being Postal, you don't have to wait, then again, you don't have to grenade the line from the roof either. How's that for moral choice in games?

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* In ''Webcomic/HetaliaAxisPowers'', there's a fake ad for a Germany sim, to simulate life through a German's eyes. He's standing in a horribly long line with a slow Greek cashier making conversation with a Spaniard. The line's not moving. Italy butts in. HilarityEnsues.

Frequent butts of this gag are banks, {{amusement park}}s, the Department of Motor Vehicles, or any similarly [[ObstructiveBureaucrat over-bureaucratic institution]].

* In ''Webcomic/AxisPowersHetalia'', there's a fake ad for a Germany sim, to simulate life through a German's eyes. He's standing in a horribly long line with a slow Greek cashier making conversation with a Spaniard. The line's not moving. Italy butts in. HilarityEnsues.
* In the ''[[Anime/YoKaiWatch Yo-Kai Watch]]'' episode, the Yo-Kai Fidgephant's powers to make people [[PottyEmergency desperate to pee]] causes a long line for the boys' bathroom to form at Nate's school. He tries to combat this by summoning Illoo to create more toilets, but they disappear after a few seconds.

* On ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'', when Crowley becomes the new King of Hell, he dispenses with the traditional FireandBrimstoneHell and instead turns it into an endless queue where condemned souls wait in line for eternity. Many people who end up in Hell are sadomasochists who are TooKinkyToTorture with the usual methods, but ''no-one'' likes waiting in line.

* In Brazilian humour show ''TV Pirata'', one sketch showed lots of people on a queue fighting fiercely, then pans to the head of the queue where we see a sign saying "Gratuituous Violence".

* ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'': In ''Literature/SoLongAndThanksForAllTheFish'', Fenchurch explains that her parents named her for a railway station because they conceived her in the ticket queue. The fact that she's Arthur's LoveInterest and they have lots of sex in that book actually makes the line from the movie HilariousInHindsight.

* Pick any sufficiently large FanConvention, preferably one with an attendance of 10,000 or more. Expect people to do music or dance performances or play games on handhelds or laptops (in the case of the latter, {{Fighting Game}}s are great for this) to pass the ''hours'' of waiting to pick up their badges. Back when the UsefulNotes/NintendoDS had an active userbase, you could pop into [=PictoChat=] and see all four rooms being used. Not so fun if the convention takes place during the summer and the line is outdoors; Anime Expo, the largest anime convention in the United States, is infamous for cases of people suffering ''heat stroke''.

* Pick any sufficiently large FanConvention, preferably one with an attendance of 10,000 or more. Expect people to do music or dance performances or play games on handhelds or laptops to pass the ''hours'' of waiting to pick up their badges. Back when the UsefulNotes/NintendoDS had an active userbase, you could pop into [=PictoChat=] and see all four rooms being used. Not so fun if the convention takes place during the summer and the line is outdoors; Anime Expo, the largest anime convention in the United States, is infamous for cases of people suffering ''heat stroke''.