History Main / TakeANumber

* Spoofed in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/ReBoot''. Bob needs to get "slow food" from Al's Wait-And-Eat, and is told to take a number. Bob's number is "1000000000000", but [[ZeroesAndOnes since it's in binary]], Bob remarks, "4096? Must be the lunch rush..." Still, Al's waiter calls out, "Now serving number 3..."

You're in a waiting room with one of those "Take a Number" devices. You take your number, sit down, look at it... and find that it's something ridiculous, at least four digits long. Just then, an announcement: "Now Serving, Number Three."

This can end in one of the following ways:
* Every single number before yours is called, but when your number is about to be called... the place closes for the day.
* The waiting room is empty except for you, but the staff insists on calling each number under yours and waiting for a response.
* HilarityEnsues as you scramble to beg for or steal a lower number.

See also RightOnQueue, for when a character is stuck in line for a location that doesn't use such a number system. A related trope is TicketLineCampout, which is about showing up early to guarantee an early spot in the queue (numbered or otherwise.) Sub trope of AbsurdlyLongWait.

* In the TV movie ''High School USA'', Beth (Nancy McKeon) is working in a bakery when JJ (Michael J. Fox) comes to talk to her. She doesn't want to talk with him and calls the next number. JJ has several "take a number" cards in his pocket and pulls out the correct number so he can talk to her.
* ''The Tiger Makes Out'' - Eli Wallach's mad-at-the-world character goes to the housing authority with a grievance on his lunch hour, and gets number 110 when they're only up to 15. He pretends to be #15, but the representative won't talk with him until he's produced the number. He's then busted and booed out of the office for being a line-breaker.

* Happens to Garfield in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/GarfieldAndFriends'', while waiting to get yogurt at a frozen yogurt stand. Despite the fact that he was the ''only customer there''.

* Happens in ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants''. After many issues with trying to get a bus out of Rock Bottom, [=SpongeBob=] goes to ask for a schedule. However, there's a huge line, and [=SpongeBob=] has to wait all the way in the back. The person ahead of him, uh, lays on egg on top of his head stating his number in line. As soon as the line moves up one person, the egg hatches, and three more people jump in front of him waiting in line. And when he actually reaches the end of the line, the clerk simply says that the next bus to Bikini Bottom leaves in five seconds, then "Sorry, we're closed" ensues.

* Naturally, ''Series/SesameStreet'' does this with Grover and [[ButtMonkey Mr. Johnson]], one of the Fat Blue characters. Mr. Johnson, holding number 40, has to wait while bakery clerk Grover calls numbers 1 through 38 for non-existent clientele. Of course, at number 39, a woman shows up with an extremely long and complicated list which Grover proceeds to fill, leaving the hapless Mr. Johnson screaming in frustration.

* In the demo of ''VideoGame/TheStanleyParable'', you take a number and wait a minute or two before you meet the Narrator (if you do wait, that is).
[[spoiler: When you get to this room again in the demo, you can wait again until your number shows up again, if only to mess with the Narrator.]]

* In the demo of ''VideoGame/TheStanleyParable'', you take a number and wait a minute or two before you meet the Narrator (if you do wait, that is). [[spoiler: When you get to this room again in the demo, you can wait again until your number shows up again, if only to mess with the Narrator.]]

* Naturally, ''Series/SesameStreet'' does this with Grover and Mr. Johnson, one of the Fat Blue characters. Mr. Johnson, holding number 40, has to wait while bakery clerk Grover calls numbers 1 through 38 for non-existent clientele. Of course, at number 39, a woman shows up with an extremely long and complicated list which Grover proceeds to fill, leaving the hapless Mr. Johnson screaming in frustration.

* Spoofed in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/ReBoot''. Bob needs to get "slow food" from Al's Wait-And-Eat, and is told to take a number. Bob's number is "[=1000=][=0000=][=00000=]", but [[ZeroesAndOnes since it's in binary]], Bob remarks, "4096? Must be the lunch rush..." Still, Al's waiter calls out, "Now serving number 3..."

* Spoofed in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/ReBoot''. Bob needs to get "slow food" from Al's Wait-And-Eat, and is told to take a number. Bob's number is "[=1000000000000=]", but [[ZeroesAndOnes since it's in binary]], Bob remarks, "4096? Must be the lunch rush..." Still, Al's waiter calls out, "Now serving number 3..."

* In an episode of ''TheSimpsons'', Lisa tricks Homer and Bart into thinking they have leprosy and Ned sends them to a Hawaiian rehab center. While Homer is receiving a painful operation, Bart looks at his ticket, a #2.

* Spoofed in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/ReBoot''. Bob needs to get "slow food" from Al's Wait-And-Eat, and is told to take a number. Bob's number is "1000000000000", but [[ZeroesAndOnes since it's in binary]], Bob remarks, "4096? Must be the lunch rush..." Still, Al's waiter calls out, "Now serving number 3..."

* As a bit of humor, one can buy a paperweight featuring a novelty hand grenade (that is to say, [[CaptainObvious no explosives in it]]) with a number tag hanging from the pin, complete with a sign reading "Please take a number".

See also RightOnQueue, for when a character is stuck in line for a location that doesn't use such a number system. A related trope is TicketLineCampout, which is about showing up early to guarantee an early spot in the queue (numbered or otherwise.)

* A ''{{Chespirito}}/Series'' short starring Doctor Chapatín has him arriving at a hospital with an injured man, and desperately trying to get him attended. He's forced to take a number and wait, and HilarityEnsues when it turns out the numbers are picked at random, Chapatín tears up his own right when he was about to be called, and in trying to prove his point to the doctor in charge, [[BlackComedy he only shakes the injured man around causing him even more pain]].

** Early in the movie, a ghost couple get a a six- or seven-digit number in Heaven's waiting room. It's then revealed that they had to spend three months here before being served.

* CandidCamera used the premise for a prank. The victim was the only one in the waiting room, but he was told to take a number and wait for it to be called. He was number 36 but the clerk started all the way from 1, even though nobody was there to answer. At first she paused between numbers, but as she got close to his, she started calling them out in rapid succession and eventually skipped over him. "Who's got 30? Anybody? 31... 32... 33... 34-35-36-37.... 38? Who's got 38?"

* In the ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' sketch "Samurai Delicatessan", Buck Henry enters the empty (of customers) deli with Creator/JohnBelushi's Samurai behind the counter. When Henry tries to ask for something, the samurai shouts Japanese at him and point (with his katana) at the sign saying "Please take a number." After the samurai calls out three or four Japanese "numbers", Henry calls out that he's got that one and now the samurai waits on him.