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1[[quoteright:280:[[Webcomic/TheAdventuresOfDrMcNinja https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/newspaper_date_dr_mn.jpg]]]]
2[[caption-width-right:280:[[WorstNewsJudgmentEver Slow news day?]]]]
3
4->''"Having crammed on time travel movies before their first time heist, [[ComicBook/CaptainAmerica Steve]] knows the best way to find the date and place is to look for a stray newspaper."''
5-->-- ''Fanfic/ReturningTheStones''
6
7A {{Time Travel}}er may not want to confuse random passers-by by asking them "WhatYearIsThis", so they'll find a newspaper or other conveniently dated artifact instead. A standard joke has one character using the architecture, the fashions, the technology, and the incidents on TV to come up with a guess at the year, only for someone else to correct them after reading the paper.
8
9TechnologyMarchesOn, and while they continue to be printed, it is still to be seen how long newspapers will be available to check this in runs to the future, what with the prevalence of people reading the news on their smartphone on their way to work. Though of course this trope probably won't ever be truly discredited, unlike most tropes involving newspapers, since time-travel can still always bring a character to an era where newspapers were more relevant.
10
11[[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant Not to be confused with personal]] ads, or with AuthenticationByNewspaper, or with two people dating and it having something to do with a newspaper, or with [[CargoShip dating a newspaper]].
12----
13!!Examples:
14
15[[foldercontrol]]
16
17[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
18* ''Anime/CowboyBebop'' does a somewhat serious take on the joke version of this in "[[Recap/CowboyBebopSession15MyFunnyValentine My Funny Valentine]]". In order to demonstrate the extent of her remaining memory after waking from a cold-sleep, Faye identifies a series of slightly futuristic-looking objects on the table next to her. Her lawyer then makes a point of showing her just how far into the future she's been thrown by demonstrating that the items are not a TV, a water pitcher, and a phone but rather a miniature washing machine, a device for washing faces, and a thermometer.
19* In ''Manga/{{Dazzle}}'', [[spoiler:this is how Rahzel finally realizes that she's been sent in the past]].
20* Kyon uses this method at one point during ''[[Literature/HaruhiSuzumiya The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya]]'' to figure out what year he is in [[spoiler: after using Nagato's escape program]]. He considers asking WhatYearIsThis, but swiftly discards the idea after realizing how demented he would look to others and instead heads for a convenience store to check the newspapers.
21* In ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureStoneOcean'', Jolyne finds herself in the [[APlaceHoldsMemories memory]] of a plane that's going to explode, and looking around, she finds a newspaper dating the incident back to 2005.
22* A more short term version appears in ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi''. [[spoiler:Chao]] sends Negi and his friends a week into the future to the point that she has already won the battle. They realize something is up (the massive SchoolFestival has disappeared), but they don't figure out what happened until Yue sees the date on a newspaper. Chisame finds out separately over the internet.
23[[/folder]]
24
25[[folder:Comic Books]]
26* The protagonist of ''The Big Lie'' from Creator/ImageComics (a book about the events of 9/11) does this at the start of the story, discovering she has arrived several days earlier than she intended.
27* Played with in the ''ComicBook/BlakeAndMortimer'' book ''The Time Trap'': Mortimer finds himself alone in a post apocalyptic future. He finds an inscription in some ruins reading "2015-2050" and thus believes himself to be in the mid 21st century...until he meets someone else and mentions the date only to be informed he's actually in ''5060'': the ruins he was in were of a city destroyed in 2075.
28* A ''ComicBook/DonaldDuck'' story had a scam artist turn a newspaper from the 3rd to the 8th with a marker.
29* Subverted in a 1993 ''ComicBook/DylanDog'' storyline, where the eponymous hero wakes up with amnesia in a [[AfterTheEnd post-apocalyptic future]]. It's only near the end of the story that he finds, in the ruins of a library, a collection of (very aged) newspapers running up to 2001, the year civilization ended. Dylan deduces he must be in the early 21st century... Then, not three panels later, he reads on a solar-powered clock it's August 4th, 2560.
30* In a NightmareSequence in ''ComicBook/{{Femforce}}'' #22, Ms. Victory finds herself in New York City. She checks a newspaper on a newsstand and sees it is 1937, a few years before she gained her powers.
31* ''ComicBook/TheFlash'': The classic story "Flash of Two Worlds" sees Barry end up in a city he's never heard of after performing an Indian rope trick. He looks at a newspaper to determine "when" he is -- seeing the date and year are the same as they were before, he realizes he hasn't traveled through time. It's later revealed that he's on Earth-2, an alternate universe's version of Earth where DC's Golden Age characters live.
32[[/folder]]
33
34[[folder:Fan Works]]
35* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12296472/1/Against-My-Nature Against My Nature]]'' Harry realizes it's 1925 when he sees a ''Daily Prophet'' article about Grindlewald.
36* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9624663/2/Black-Fortunes Black Fortunes]]'' Harry spots a newspaper in passing and is dismayed to realize he's back in 1975.
37* In ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2345466/1/Dumbledores_Army Dumbledore's Army]]'', Harry receives visions of two future attacks. A few chapters are spent trying to pinpoint these through newspapers and school assignments.
38* ''Fanfic/FateDxDAU'': When Ritsuka Fujimaru lands in the [=DxD=] world, he finds a newspaper that says it is 2008. In his own world, is was roughly 2021.
39* Inverted in ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2149801/1/Out_of_Time Out of Time]]'' when [[Manga/RurouniKenshin Kenshin]] from the revolution ends up time traveling twelve years into the future (during the main series). While Sano has figured out what's going on, Kenshin isn't convinced (and is rather intent on killing Sano, believing he's a spy). Sano's barely able to get him to look at an old discarded newspaper, which wins him over.
40* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12424188/2/Naturally Naturally]]'' Harry uses a newsstand paper to verify that it's currently 1927.
41* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13010260/1/The-Second-String The Second String]]'' Harry discovers that it's 1976 from a discarded ''Daily Mirror''.
42* In a variation in ''Fanfic/WithStringsAttached'', the four find out that they're in an alternate New York, “New Zork,” in 1954, from a license plate. Given [[Music/TheBeatles what they did in New York had taken place in 1964]], they feel pretty safe in wandering around without fear of being mobbed. That is, until Ringo, lagging behind the others, plucks a newspaper out of the trash and finds to his horror that in this universe, the “Beagles” have ''just'' arrived in the city.... [[HilarityEnsues Cue the ensuing of hilarity.]]
43[[/folder]]
44
45[[folder:Film — Live-Action]]
46* In ''Film/FiftyFirstDates'', a character with short-term memory loss doesn't know what year it is, until she sees a newspaper. This is the result of her father arranging for hundreds of copies of the newspaper from the day of her accident, to keep her from having to deal with it for as long as possible.
47* Marty does this in the [[Film/BackToTheFuture1 first]] and second ''Franchise/BackToTheFuture'' movies. Played with in ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartII'', where the newspaper confirms Marty has the right date, he's just in a different timeline. And then there's a ClickHello.
48-->'''Strickland:''' So '''you're''' the son of a bitch who's been stealing my newspapers!
49* A variation occurs in ''Film/FieldOfDreams'', where Ray figures out he's walked back into 1972 by checking the registration date on a Minnesota license plate.
50* In ''Film/{{Idiocracy}}'', Joe (and the viewer) finds out what year he's in by seeing a magazine cover[[note]](''Hot Naked Chicks & World Report'')[[/note]] dated 2505 (which he thinks is a misprint), and then a receipt that confirms the date on the magazine.
51* The attempt at newspaper dating in ''Film/MenInBlack3'' doesn't work because the guy in the elevator keeps shifting the date on the paper out of J's line of sight. J finally just asks him WhatYearIsIt.
52* Used twice in ''Film/Rewind2013'', where a secret government project has created a prototype time machine that opens random, temporary windows into the past. In order to determine the date and location these windows connect to, MissionControl launches a ''very'' tiny drone through the portal and hopes to surreptitiously blunder into something or someone that indicates what era they've got access to:
53** The first window seen in the film leads to a field in Gloucester on July 22nd, 1934. The drone picked up the date and location by listening to a radio broadcast.
54** The next window opens up in the basement of a fairly modern looking building. Once the drone zips out of the door and onto the street, a random passerby just happens to hold up a copy of ''The Washington News'' with the date "Friday March 8 1929" printed on it.
55* Subverted in ''Film/StarTrekIVTheVoyageHome''. Spock determines from the pollution in the atmosphere as being "the latter half of the twentieth century" and Kirk doesn't ask to get more specific than that as it doesn't matter. Later, Kirk is seen looking at a newspaper machine, but only to confirm that the time period still has a currency-based economy and they will need to acquire some money in order to complete the mission.
56* In ''Film/TimeAfterTime'', after H. G. Wells demonstrates his time-machine to his skeptical 20th Century girlfriend by taking her a few days into the future, she confirms that his time-machine works when she sees a newspaper dated a few days later. [[spoiler:She then reads about her own murder on the front page.]] Earlier in the movie, when he arrives in 1979, he already knows ''when'' he is, but makes use of a newspaper to find out ''where'' he is (apparently not having realized he'd traveled from London to San Francisco).
57[[/folder]]
58
59[[folder:Literature]]
60* In "Against the Current" by Creator/RobertSilverberg the main character starts drifting backwards through time from 2008 with his Prius, and regularly checks newspapers to determine how far he's gone -- first 1983, then 1973, then 1971 and so on.
61* Variation in ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'': Jake, while trapped in a post-apocalyptic New York City, tries to determine when humanity lost by the dates in a bombed-out magazine stand.
62* ''Literature/AroundTheWorldInEightyDays'' has what might be considered a non-time-travel aversion, in that Phileas Fogg apparently never checks the date on a newspaper after crossing the Pacific. Had he done so he would have realised that [[spoiler:he had gained a day after crossing the International Date Line]].
63* Creator/IsaacAsimov and Creator/JanetAsimov's ''Literature/TheNorbyChronicles'':
64** ''Literature/NorbyAndTheQueensNecklace'':
65*** In chapter two, the first time the characters [[AccidentalTimeTravel activate the necklace]], Jeff finds a newspaper on the floor, establishing that they're in Paris, France, and that they arrived on February 1, 1785.
66*** In chapter four, after Norby rescues Jeff and Marcel from the executioner, Marcel picks up a newspaper that says the date is April 16, 1896. Jeff can’t because he and Norby are FadingAway.
67*** In chapter eleven, Norby is the one who finds a newspaper, giving us the date of July 14, 1805. It shows that time has been changed, because people aren’t celebrating [[UsefulNotes/TheFrenchRevolution Bastille Day]].
68** ''Literature/NorbyFindsAVillain'': In chapter four, Jeff uses the menu of the ''UsefulNotes/RMSTitanic'' to recognize that it was April 14, 1912. When he realizes that [[HistoricalInJoke the ship is sinking]], he orders Norby to take them away.
69%%* Creator/StephenKing's ''Franchise/TheDarkTower'': Used in novels 5 through 7 of series
70* Creator/RobertAHeinlein:
71** ''Literature/TimeEnoughForLove''. Lazarus Long travels back in time and reads a newspaper to learn the current date: August 1, 1916. This is about three years earlier than he intended to arrive, since he'd planned to skip UsefulNotes/WorldWarI.
72** Toward the end of ''Literature/MethuselahsChildren'', the characters have returned to Earth in their stolen starship, but don't want to land until they know how much time has passed since they fled an oppressive government. One of the characters, Andy Libby, determines the approximate date by examining the relative positions of the planets in the Solar System. (75 years have passed.)
73%%* Done straight in Creator/TerryPratchett's ''Literature/JohnnyAndTheBomb''.
74* This appears whenever Bobby arrives on First Earth (Earth in the year 1937) in ''Literature/ThePendragonAdventure''.
75* The limited-run school stories anthology ''Spooky'' has a lot of its stories featuring this trope, mainly because people ended up in the past a lot.
76* Played with in ''Literature/ToSayNothingOfTheDog'' by Creator/ConnieWillis. The main character needs to find out the exact date he landed in order to correctly fulfill his SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong mission. He finds a newspaper, but doesn't realize that it's several days old.
77** Connie Willis does this again in ''Blackout''. A time traveler finds half a newspaper and tries to use it to figure out the date. First it turns out to be the half that doesn't have the date printed on it, so he has to use his knowledge of history to correlate the stories in the paper with the date. After he manages to figure it out, he starts talking to people, and through a series of conversational missteps realizes that the paper is again several days older than he thought it was.
78[[/folder]]
79
80[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
81* Subverted in a 1997 episode of ''Series/ThirdRockFromTheSun''. Dick, who already thinks he's losing his mind, is in a doctor's waiting room filled with, of course, old magazines. After rifling through them, he panics, declaring "Oh my god, it's 1994!"
82* ''Series/{{Angel}}''. After spending sixteen years in a hell dimension, Holtz looks at a newspaper to see what year it is and is shocked to find that [[YearInsideHourOutside only days have passed since he left]].
83* This shows up in the ''Series/{{Charmed|1998}}'' episode "That '70s Episode", when the protagonists time-travel [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin back to the 1970s]].
84* ''Series/ComeBackMrsNoah''. Garstang says he has no idea how old he is, as [[DoorstopBaby he was found wrapped in newspaper]] with some fish and chips.
85-->'''Cunliffe:''' Well didn't the newspaper have a date on it?
86-->'''Garstang:''' It was the comic page!
87* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
88** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E2TheDalekInvasionOfEarth "The Dalek Invasion of Earth"]], the TARDIS crew discover they are in 2164 (or later) from a calendar in an abandoned warehouse.
89** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E8TheChase "The Chase"]] sees a variant of this trope. Ian & Barbara find out they’re (near enough) home by checking the windscreen of the nearest parked car to find its tax disc expires on New Year’s Eve 1965. (This is referenced in ''Film/AnAdventureInSpaceAndTime'' when the audience is shown that it is 1966 by displaying a car's tax disc.)
90** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS5E4TheEnemyOfTheWorld "The Enemy of the World"]], Jamie finds out he's in 2018 by looking at the expiration date of the tax disc on the helicopter that's just picked him up. (HilariousInHindsight - tax discs were phased out in the UK in 2014.)
91** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E3TheUnquietDead "The Unquiet Dead"]], the Doctor uses a paper to determine that they are not, in fact, in 1860 Naples, but rather 1869 [[AliensInCardiff Cardiff]]. Rose doesn't care until she hears [[SelfDeprecation that last bit]]. "Right..."
92** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E5RiseOfTheCybermen "Rise of the Cybermen"]], the TARDIS crashes and Mickey uses this method to determine that they have landed in modern London; it then transpires that they've passed into a parallel universe by accident.
93** Also used in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E4DaleksInManhattan "Daleks in Manhattan"]], where the Doctor attempts to work out the date from how complete the Empire State Building is, whilst Martha picks up a newspaper from a bench behind them.
94** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E8HumanNature "Human Nature"]], a teacher called John Smith wakes up from a strange dream in which he's a doctor caught up in adventures in the far-flung future of 2007. His maid, who just happens to resemble his companion in that dream, assures him that it's 1913 and hands over the daily paper as proof.
95** Kathy Nightingale does this in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E10Blink "Blink"]], though it's as much to convince her that she time-travelled at all as to determine the date.
96** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E7TheUnicornAndTheWasp "The Unicorn and the Wasp"]], the Doctor figures out what year it is by other clues, but the exact date turns out to be important.
97** Another take on this trope is the Doctor (who has SeenItAll) telling the date from the technology around him, e.g. in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E7KillTheMoon "Kill the Moon"]].
98--->'''Courtney:''' This isn't the Moon. Where are we? \
99'''The Doctor:''' On a recycled space shuttle. 2049, judging by that prototype version of the Bennett oscillator.
100** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E3Rosa "Rosa"]] has the Doctor doing this to deduce that her and her companions are in town the day before a pivotal historical event, which means they can't just leave since someone is clearly attempting to meddle with it.
101* This trope is how the protagonists of ''Series/FlashForward2009'' find out that the eponymous flash forwards are supposed to show the future. As well as in its modern incarnation, ''Series/{{Journeyman}}''.
102* ''Series/KamenRiderZiO'' pulls a variation in the first episode, with Sougo checking the expiration date on a milk carton to confirm that he's really gone back in time to 2017.
103* That was a key element of a two-part FakedRipVanWinkle ploy in the first ''Series/MissionImpossible'' series. After escaping the futuristic hospital he had woken up in, the mark goes to the first newspaper booth he sees (right in front of the hospital) and "discovers" that he hasn't been out ''that'' long... but still a day longer than he really was.
104* In the 1981 Afterschool Special ''[[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0243434/ My Mother was Never a Kid]]'' Victoria Martin, after getting into an argument with her mother, seemingly travels through time during a subway trip and meets her mother as a teenager, she only confirms her travel by finding a newspaper dated 1944. She comes to realize that she and her mother are very much the same. In the end we find out [[spoiler: it was all just a dream]].
105* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'':
106** In "Vanishing Act", Trevor [=McPhee=] realizes that he has traveled ten years into the future when he sees issues of ''Magazine/TimeMagazine'' and ''Life'' dated 1959.
107** "The Origin of Species" has a variation. A group think they have been transported to an alien planet, but gradually figure out they are in the distant future. A look at the expiration date of a discarded candy bar wrapper confirms this. (By no means accurate, but close enough for their purposes).
108%%* Happens around OnceAnEpisode in ''Series/QuantumLeap''.
109* Played with in ''Series/RedDwarf'', "[[Recap/RedDwarfSeasonIIIBackwards Backwards]]" - the date on the newspaper was 3991, but by that point Kryten had realized that everything was backwards, so the actual year was 1993.
110* ''Franchise/StarTrek'':
111** ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'': In "[[Recap/StarTrekS3E6SpectreOfTheGun Spectre of the Gun]]", Captain Kirk finds a copy of the Tombstone Epitaph dated October 26th, 1881. On Website/YouTube [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TP03eWhP-vI here]], starting at 5:30.[[note]]On Blu-Ray, you can read the articles. They're not from 1881. Given that they're not ''really'' in the Old West, this kinda works.[[/note]]
112** ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': In "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E26S6E1TimesArrow Time's Arrow]]", Data does this to tell both where and when he is by finding a copy of the San Francisco Register dated August 13, 1893.
113** Averted in ''Series/StarTrekVoyager''. In "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS3E8FuturesEnd Future's End]]", the ship time traveled back to Earth in 1996, which they find out just by doing an astrometric reading. And in "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS6E23Fury Fury]]", having traveled back to a past Voyager, Kes just asks the ship's computer for the date.
114* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'':
115** In "[[Recap/SupernaturalS04E03InTheBeginning In the Beginning]]", Dean realizes he's been sent back in time by the angel Castiel when he goes into a diner and sees the date on the newspaper of the man next to him (who happens to be his father). He also does it when he is raised from the dead in "[[Recap/SupernaturalS04E01LazarusRising Lazarus Rising]]" due to time flowing much slower in Hell than on Earth.
116** When carried forward to a BadFuture where [[TheVirus Croatoan virus]] has swept over the Earth, Dean reads the date on a government warning sign announcing the area he's in is a hot zone. Zachariah (the angel who sent him there) later turns up to read the newspaper to him, just to ram home what a CrapsackWorld it is.
117** After traveling forward in time from 1958, Henry Winchester (Dean's grandfather) reads the registration on the Impala. "2013? My god! I guess the [[MayanDoomsday Mayans were wrong]]."
118* The season 3 episode of ''Series/TeenWolf'', "Motel California" has a cold open that shows a flashback to 1975, when an Argent relative checked into the featured motel of the episode and killed himself before transforming into a werewolf. Newspapers and the dates they display are a recurring theme of this episode, tempting the audience to believe that this episode and the motel itself may actually feature a connection to time-travel and bringing to the table the possibility that Lydia's powers give her the ability to sense death throughout all of time (evidenced by the fact that she heard 2 deaths in the room next door, when the deaths occurred prior to the group's arrival at the motel).
119* In the first episode of season 2 of ''Series/{{Timewasters}}'', the band arrives in the 1950s and Lauren identifies the year as 1958 from a discarded newspaper on the street: the lead story being about Russian spies.
120* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1959S2E23AHundredYardsOverTheRim A Hundred Yards over the Rim]]", Chris Horn, who is from 1847, realizes that he is in the future when he sees a calendar dated 1961 in Joe's diner.
121* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1985'':
122** In "Grace Note", after being transported through time, Rosemarie Miletti picks up a copy of ''The New York Herald'' and learns that it is March 22, 1986, 20 years in her future.
123** In "The Once and Future King", Gary Pitkin realizes that he has gone back in time and is talking to the real Music/ElvisPresley when he finds a copy of ''The Commercial Appeal'' dated Monday July 3, 1954 with a prominent photo of UsefulNotes/DwightDEisenhower on the front page.
124[[/folder]]
125
126[[folder:Video Games]]
127* In ''VideoGame/ChronoCross'', the Dead Sea is a fragment of alt-1999 A.D., and Chronopolis is supposed to have originated in the year 2300, which the group discovers looking at the plaque.
128* In ''VideoGame/DotsHome'', you can check the time period that Dot traveled to by checking the date on the newspaper.
129* In ''VideoGame/FairyFencerF'', in at least two of the three [[spoiler:alternate timelines]], the party discovers that [[spoiler:they've traveled in time]] thanks to this. Humorously, in the [[spoiler:Goddess timeline]], Fang has no idea what Eryn is trying to convey [[spoiler:when she shows him the newspaper at first, thinking she just dredged up an old copy of the newspaper from somewhere.]]
130* Deliberately subverted in ''VideoGame/TheLostCrown: A Ghost-Hunting Adventure'', because newspapers only say what day of which month it is, not the year. Other documents that do suggest dates by year are wildly contradictory (e.g. a book given as a signed gift in the 1950s, yet published in 1978).
131* In ''VideoGame/ProfessorLaytonAndTheUnwoundFuture'', Layton first realizes how far into the future he is when he finds a newspaper and realizes that the date is 10 years into the future.
132* In ''VideoGame/TimeSplittersFuturePerfect'', Cortez picks up a photo of the BigBad. The MissionControl proposes a complex scheme to determine when/where to send Cortez to, regarding the building heights and designs. Cortez waits through the speech, then reads out the date, time and place from the back of the photo.
133* While no time travel is involved, both ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption'' and its [[VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption2 sequel/prequel]] go through a time skip before the PlayableEpilogue starts. The amount of time that passed off-screen is usually not mentioned in dialogue, so the simplest way to find out what year it is is to buy a newspaper.
134[[/folder]]
135
136[[folder:Webcomics]]
137%%* Parodied in ''Webcomic/TheAdventuresOfDrMcNinja''. The time traveler in question looks at a newspaper to see what year it is, and (then the link that was the only context broke)
138* ''Webcomic/FateTypeRedline'': Kanata Akagi is a boy from 2020 who gets sent to the past. He finds a newspaper that confirms he is in 1945.
139* At the end of issue 6 of ''WebComic/StrongFemaleProtagonist'', [[spoiler:the real professor who was supposed to be teaching Alison's college philosophy class]] walked into the classroom, to the confusion of all students present. When asked what happened to [[spoiler:Professor Gurwara]], he responded that he had never heard of anyone by that name, and, when Alison challenged him on the date, he looked at his newspaper and collapsed with shock upon discovering that he had lost around a month and a half of his life.
140[[/folder]]
141
142[[folder:Western Animation]]
143* ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'': Parodied in "[[Recap/AdventureTimeS5E24AnotherFiveShortGraybles Another Five Short Graybles]]" with the obviously fake newspaper Jake creates to 'prove' that he went to the future.
144* In ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'''s universe-jumping adventure, Batman discovers that he's traveled into the future ''as well as'' across universes from a newspaper.
145* Played with in the ''WesternAnimation/CloseEnough'' episode "Time Hooch". After Josh and Alex time-travelled due to the titular whiskey, they find a newspaper of the moon landing in 1969. Alex concludes that they've time travelled to three years ago, when he collected '60s stuff.
146* ''WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog'': In "One Thousand Years of Courage", Courage and his family end up in a world ruled by sentient bananas, and when Courage points out the date on a newspaper, they realize they've been flung a thousand years into the future.
147* ''WesternAnimation/GIJoeARealAmericanHero'' also does it to confirm they haven't time-traveled, with the same result, in their universe-jumping adventure in the original series.
148* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague''
149** In "[[Recap/JusticeLeagueS1E18And19Legends Legends]]", Green Lantern does this to confirm they haven't time traveled when they arrive in an alternate Earth that looks like TheFifties. [[spoiler:However, he later finds a ''real'' newspaper which reveals that [[LotusEaterMachine the city they're in was destroyed in a nuclear war]] forty years ago.]]
150** In "[[Recap/JusticeLeagueUnlimitedS1E12WeirdWesternTales The Once and Future Thing: Weird Western Tales]]", some bandits who make the mistake of trying to rob our heroes have a newspaper in one of their saddlebags informing them it's 1879.
151* In the ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' short "WesternAnimation/TheOldGreyHare", Elmer is sent to [[{{Zeerust}} the far-off year of 2000 AD]], which he figures out from a conveniently placed newspaper. He also learns that, among other things, television has been replaced by smellovision.
152-->Carl Stalling sez, "It will never work!"
153* In the ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' episode "Agent Doof", Candace attempts to use this to convince her mom that Phineas and Ferb were turned into babies when the pictures she sends are mistaken for old, scrounged-up baby photos.
154* In ''WesternAnimation/XMenTheAnimatedSeries'', when Bishop time-travels he simply picks up a newspaper and reads the date off the front page.
155[[/folder]]

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