History Main / WhatYearIsThis

* [[Webcomic/{{Fans}} What is]] [[UnusualEuphemism the darwinfisting]] [[http://www.faans.com/facing-the-future-4-of-15/ date?!]]

* After having on-and-off again contact with a close proximity satellite for hundreds upon thousands of years, the now awakened Pioneer 9 is on their way to understanding both themselves and humanity's new, strange football and culture (i.e. their immortality and how they deal with it through an ever increasing surreal evolution of football). At the end of the prologue, Ten confusedly asks their succecessor satellite and contact point, Pioneer 10, what year it is. While Ten doesn't respond, the answer is clear: WebOriginal/SeventeenThousandSevenHundredSeventySix.

* ''Film/EdgeOfTomorrow'': The first time he dies in the invasion only to wake up the day before back in barracks, Will Cage asks his sergeant what day it is.

* After having on-and-off again contact with a close proximity satellite for hundreds upon thousands of years, the now awakened Pioneer9 is on their way to understanding both themselves and humanity's new, strange football and culture (i.e. their immortality and how they deal with it through an ever increasing surreal evolution of football). At the end of the prologue, Ten confusedly asks their succecessor satellite and contact point, Pioneer 10, what year it is. While Ten doesn't respond, the answer is clear: WebOriginal/SeventeenThousandSevenHundredSeventySix.

* After having on-and-off again contact with a close proximity satellite for hundreds upon thousands of years, the now awakened Pioneer-10 is on their way to understanding both themselves and humanity's new, strange football and culture (i.e. their immortality and how they deal with it through an ever increasing surreal evolution of football). At the end of the prologue, Ten confusedly asks their predecessor and contact point, Pioneer-9, what year it is. While Nine doesn't respond, the answer is clear: WebOriginal/SeventeenThousandSevenHundredSeventySix.

** The Third doctor rather hammily asks this question to two women in ''Recap/DoctorWho30thASDimensionsInTime'', being told it is 2013.

* The Third doctor rather hammily asks this question in ''Recap/DoctorWho30thASDimensionsInTime'', being told it is 2013.

* In the ''Series/{{Firefly}}''/''Series/DoctorWho'' crossover fanfic ''Fanfic/TheManWithNoName'', the Doctor spends much of the story confused about where/when he is and eventually simply asks. It does nothing to help get the ''Serenity'' crew to think he isn't completely bonkers.
* After being unexpectedly thrown over a thousand years into the future, Series/{{Merlin|2008}} does this in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8016336/1/Only-A-Boy Only a Boy]]'' at right about the time he's starting to get hysterical from finding out he's a legend in this time period. The woman he's talking to assumes he's been drugged.
* Inverted in the ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'' fanfic ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13250586/1/Ranma-Restart-Bid-for-Freedom Ranma Restart: Bid for Freedom]]'' - after landing in the past and being separated from Ranma, Ran (female Ranma) is asked by Cologne what year she thinks it is. Ran replies Heisei 1 (1989), only to be informed that it's actually Showa 52 (1977).
* ''Fanfic/PokemonJourneysHisuiLegend'': Chloe is confused about the strange things that she sees, and questions where she is. It's only when she learns what year it is, does she react appropriately.

* Real Life (sort of): [[http://www.dresdencodak.com/cartoons/dc_045.html Pretend To Be A Time Traveler Day]] (bottom of the page) got casual results to questions like this. The bystander may think you're crazy, but they'll still answer your questions.

* ''Literature/HaruhiSuzumiya'' example: While fixing the FUBAR Yuki created due to emotions, Kyon uses her [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Emergency Escape Program]] to get out. He lands in summer, feeling extremely warm in his sweater (it was winter then), and he realizes he has traveled through time. His first instinct is to find out where he is, followed by when is it. And since nobody would feel happy about being assaulted by an apparently delusional guy in a winter coat, he decides on NewspaperDating instead.

* In ''ComicBook/TheMightyThor'' #371, a time-travelling lawman named "Justice Peace" appears out of thin air and asks a bystander "What's the date, citizen?" He has to ask a second time, less politely (he's an Expy of JudgeDredd), before the bystander pulls himself together enough to reply.

* In the ''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged'' version of ''Episode of Bardock'', Bardock spends most of the special trying to figure out what happened to him, but his train of thought gets interrupted every single time. During the final battle, he finally puts all the pieces together[[note]]He's on a planet that looks like an older version of Planet Vegeta, the natives call themselves Saiyans, and they're under attack by a Freeza-like being named Lord Chilled whose minions use armor and blasters that look like ancient versions of the gear used by the Freeza Force[[/note]] and outright asks for confirmation from Chilled:
-->'''Bardock:''' Hey! You! What year is it?\\
'''Chilled:''' Two thousand, two hundred and twenty-two!\\
'''Bardock:''' B.C. or A.D.?\\
'''Chilled:''' The hell are those?\\
'''Bardock ([[FlatWhat flatly]]):''' [[OhCrap I'm in the (bleep)ing past.]]

* ''Film/EdgeOfTomorrow''. The first time he dies in the invasion only to wake up the day before back in barracks, Will Cage asks his sergeant what day it is.

* In ''Film/{{Deadpool 2}}'', Cable comes from the future to prevent the death of his wife and daughter. "What year is it?" is his first question to some rednecks when entering the present timeline.

* The EdutainmentGame ''Amazon Trail II'' (in which you TimeTravel by passing through "the blue mist") includes a version of this line in its {{Dialogue Tree}}s. When asked this question, {{NPC}}s helpfully reply with the whole date. One can only assume they think you've been traveling through the rainforest for a ''long'' time. Some people you talk to aren't that helpful -- for example, one native responds to the question with "the end of the rainy season".

* The question is asked word-for-word in ''VideoGame/WorldsEndClub'', as the Go-Getters suspect they may have been asleep for longer than it seemed. The year turns out to be [[spoiler:1996, one year after they left]], confirming their suspicion.

[[folder:Visual Novels]]
* A recurring situation in the ''Infinity'' series:
** Slight variation in ''VisualNovel/{{Never7}}''- the protagonist sometimes asks what ''day'' it is on certain routes (while keeping his suspicions to himself in others).
** In ''VisualNovel/{{Ever17}}'', The Kid asks this not due to being a time traveler, but because he has amnesia. [[spoiler:Of course, in some routes the person he asks ''lies'' to him, because even if he's not asking because he's a displaced time traveler doesn't mean he isn't one.]]
** In ''VisualNovel/{{Remember11}}'', Kokoro is told by Satoru that she is time-traveling, and asks this of people to confirm or disprove it. She gets conflicting results. [[spoiler: The conflict is due to the fact that ''several'' of the characters are unknowingly time traveling (or have time-traveled), so the people she asks aren't necessarily all from the same time period]].
* In ''VisualNovel/IkemenSengoku'', Sasuke shouts to a confused passerby, "There's no time to explain! Please, tell me what the year and date is!" in one route. He actually didn't need to ask as he and the main character already knew that they had time-traveled back to their original time in modern-day Japan, but he tells the main character that he'd [[IAlwaysWantedToSayThat always wanted to ask someone that question]] as a sci-fi geek.
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[[folder:Webcomics]]

* WesternAnimation/DangerMouse tells Penfold he's going to find out "when we are" as the two traverse time in a grandfather clock in the episode "The Hickory Dickory Dock Dilemma".

* A variant in AChristmasCarol: Ebenezer Scrooge has been visiting the past and future in the company of spirits, enough to make him think he may have been gone too long and missed Christmas. When he asks a boy in the street, "What day is this?", the lad is clearly surprised Scrooge doesn't know it's Christmas.

* ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya'' example: While fixing the FUBAR Yuki created due to emotions, Kyon uses her [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Emergency Escape Program]] to get out. He lands in summer, feeling extremely warm in his sweater (it was winter then), and he realizes he has traveled through time. His first instinct is to find out where he is, followed by when is it. And since nobody would feel happy about being assaulted by an apparently delusional guy in a winter coat, he decides on NewspaperDating instead.
* In ''[[LightNovel/{{Bakemonogatari}} Kabukimonogatari]]'', Koyomi and Shinobu intended to go back just one day in time, but when Koyomi asks a local schoolgirl if it's a certain day, she tells him that it's actually about three months before that day. ''Then'' he asks her the year, and realizes that he's gone back eleven years.