"No, they're still not back, Bernard. It's the fourth day that I've been in charge of the office. What? No, of course it's not difficult to cope. I just stamp 'Permission Refused' on all correspondence."
— Secretary Mildred Murfin, The Men from the Ministry
"REJECTED"
"DENIED"
These are the words that any applicant dreads, the indication that whatever they were trying to do or get permission for is not going to happen.
Often it appears in bright red ink, stamped across the face of the application. This, of course, is done so the audience can easily make it out.
Other times the act of stamping is shown, sometimes in slow motion, impacting with a resounding thud, as though crushing the hopes and dreams of the applicant beneath it. This is often the weapon of choice for the Obstructive Bureaucrat.
This represents a barrier to the characters, not a physical one, but rather a bureaucratic one. After this happens, some just give up on their request, submitting to the administrative juggernaut without protest, some work to fulfill the missing/substandard criteria and try again, others look for a workaround, and some just ignore it and do what they were requesting anyway; this can cause further problems down the road.
Frequently used along with Reasonable Request Rejected.
Compare Viewer-Friendly Interface, where text on screens is sized for the audience's convenience.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Daphne in the Brilliant Blue: Episode 5 begins with the Nereids getting their licenses renewed, or issued in Maia's case. They are stamped and verified one after the other, except the last one which is stamped as denied. This one belongs to Yu, a woman the detective has no intention of ever approving as long as he has anything to say about it due to a laundry list of damages and injuries she caused just apprehending a pair of minor criminals.
- In the second episode of Excel♡Saga, Lord Ilpalazzo asks Excel about a 34-year-old musician named Takanori Akai. After hearing Excel's opinion of him (namely, that he's worthlessly reckless), Lord Ilpalazzo "rejects" him by stamping a sheet bearing his profile.
- In Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Dr. Hisashi Imakurusu oversaw a panel that reviewed the Murai vaccine as a treatment for Cyberbrain Sclerosis. Despite the vaccine's efficacy (and the lack of any alternative treatment), due to Murai's inability to offer an explanation of why it worked and Imakurusu's jealousy due to his own failed work at treating Cyberbrain Sclerosis, Imakurusu and his panel had a stamp custom-made that read "Approval Denied" to reject the vaccine. Ironically, by the time of the series Imakarusu had himself developed Cyberbrain Sclerosis and kept himself alive using the vaccine he personally oversaw the rejection of. While the stamp itself is never seen, the existence of such a custom-made stamp is used to suggest the truth of personal motive for rejecting the vaccine.
Films — Animation
- The Incredibles: Done as a Gilligan Cut after the lawsuit montage. As the narrator ends by saying how the Supers are living as ordinary citizens, still trying to make the world a better place, cut to Bob stamping "DENIED" on a little old lady's insurance claim.
- A deleted scene from Zootopia shows Nick getting rejected for a loan by various banks, with a montage of workers of various species stamping "REJECTED" on his application. The last one is a sloth, who is lowering the stamp very slowly until Nick loses his patience, grabs the stamp, and stamps the papers himself.
Films — Live-Action
- Armageddon (1998): Played for laughs. The roughnecks are all deemed unfit to execute a space mission (and not without cause). Their paperwork is stamped accordingly. But we wouldn't have much of a film if that stuck, so the experts are overridden.
- In Bastard out of Carolina, Anney issues a birth certificate for her daughter Ruth Anne (AKA Bone) after the latter's birth father is run out of town. However, the courthouse clerk stamps the word "ILLEGITIMATE" on the certificate, which serves as a blemish on Bone.
- Captain America: The First Avenger: We are first introduced to Steve Rogers in a recruitment office, where a doctor takes one look at the list of medical conditions Steve has (which is long enough to make one wonder how he lived to reach enlistment age) and stamps his form with "4F" (not qualified for service).
- Pearl Harbor: During the scene in the medical office, one pilot is seen arguing with a doctor about his medical, trying to get him to not deny him so he can keep flying. The doctor is unmoved and stamps "DENIED" on his form. This serves to up Rafe's anxiety that he'll be rejected and lose his wings too.
- In The Shawshank Redemption, we see Red's two requests for parole getting a rejected stamp after the respective hearings and the final one, after the third hearing, getting stamped with APPROVED.
- Used as a Running Gag in The Terminal. Victor keeps filling the same form out every day and takes it to Amelia, who has to stamp it "Denied" each time because he still doesn't have a visa to go with it, and he can't get one until the US officially recognizes his country again.
- At the start of the Mel Brooks adaptation of The Twelve Chairs, Vorbyaninov rushes to his dying mother-in-law's side from work, still carrying a stamp from his office in his hand. After hearing her confession that she had hid the family jewels in one of their dining room chairs during the revolution, he kisses her goodbye, with that stamp still in his hand, leaving the old woman to go to the next life with CANCELLED embossed on her face.
Live-Action TV
- Bones: One early episode begins with Bones requesting to be issued a sidearm. Booth sits down and patiently walks her through the process - and then stamps it with "Denied" right then and there, because she'd previously shot a suspect. In her defense, the suspect was trying to set her on fire, but the use of a gun without a license meant she wouldn't be getting the permit (this time). Booth went along with it because Bones had a right to attempt the application process, even if he had to then deny it (and also to troll her a little).
- Brooklyn Nine-Nine: When Charles's food truck is set on fire, the insurance investigator is the squad's former member Adrian Pimento. When Pimento feels slighted by Jake and Charles, he very dramatically stamps Charles's claim "DENIED".
- Married... with Children: One episode has Bud, going through a montage of being rejected by various banks for a loan to make an exercise video, at one point receive a "No" stamped right onto his forehead.
- The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine has an opening animation of a factory producing busts of Beethoven. One bust, however, looks distinctly like Feldman, which triggers an alarm at quality control. The Feldman bust gets stamped with "REJECT" across its face, booted off the assembly line, down a dark chute to a refuse bin outside. This animation was produced by Terry Gilliam.
Radio
- In The Men from the Ministry, the "Permission Refused" stamp is one of the most common and valuable tools the Obstructive Bureaucrats that work in the Whitehall use, and often forms are automatically rejected and sent back without even reading them. In fact, "Permission Granted" is stated in one episode to be one of the rarest stamps in existence.
Video Games
- The entirety of Papers, Please is about stamping approvals or rejections on passports of people who want to enter the fictional country of Arstotzka. Later days allow you to deal with said people in other ways, such as detaining them.
- In Psychonauts, enormous "no sign"-shaped stamps are the weapon of choice of the Censors.
Web Animation
- Homestar Runner: "Senor Mortgage" opens with a balding cartoon man having a "NOT APPROVED!" stamp briefly flash over him, eliciting a weary sigh from the man.
Narrator: Are you having a problem buying a home or something? Fret no more!
Western Animation
- The Obstructive Bureaucrat in the Avatar: The Last Airbender episode "The Serpent's Pass" stamps one on Aang's head after he asked her to grant a pass to a pregnant refugee couple that had their passports and tickets to Ba Sing Se stolen.
- Looney Tunes: "The Draft Horse" ends with the horse, who decided to join the army, getting a form with "REJECTED" stamped across it. He's initially put out but soon after wanders onto an actual battlefield and quickly finds that War Is Hell. He decides he's better off not in the army after all.
- The Simpsons:
- In "Homer vs Patty and Selma", Homer applies for a chauffeur's license and, much to his chagrin, is forced to take his driving test under the guidance of his hated sisters-in-law Patty and Selma. When he fails the scantron part of the test because he didn't completely fill in one of the circles, both of them gleefully stamp his test with a red FAIL stamp.
- "Duffless": Patty stamps Homer's license with a VOID stamp after Homer gets his license revoked due to drunk driving.
- "Pokey Mom": The wardens reaction upon seeing Jack at the parole hearing is to say that he will ink up his old DENIED stamp.
