History Main / IsThisThingOn

* In ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'' episode "The City of Frownsville", Lou Gubrious sets a ray on Townsville that has everyone crying torrents of tears. The girls attempt to make the crowd at a festival laugh, even though ''they're'' crying as well. Blossom taps the mic and sobs, "Is this thing on?"

Alex the rock star is ready to wow the crowd with his hip brand of radical [[RapRock rap-rock]]-[[RapMetal metal]] fusion. The crowd remains in an eager silence as he calmly walks onto the stage and takes slow, echoing steps towards his personal, Jimi Hendrix-signed microphone. His hand reaches out to grasp it. A light but dramatic cough, and... "Hey, Is This Thing On?" *tap tap tap* "Testing, testing, 1-2-3...".

* A variation of this trope is used for radio communication, where it will likely not be immediately apparent to the operator if his station is transmitting properly or not, even if he ''knows'' the transmitter is on, as radios typically cannot receive anything while transmitting, and will instead be dead silent to the operator. In this case, the operator can call out for a "Radio Check" or a "Signal Report", where they might receive some variant of "Loud and Clear" or "Five by Five" if everything is working properly. For amateur radio operators, this is a required part of most radio conversations for logging purposes, especially if done for competitions. When in doubt, you can always just give a signal report of "Five Nine", indicating a perfect signal, whether it was actually that good or not, just to be polite and help the other guy complete his radio log.

* At one point in his Presidency, UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan was asked to talk into a mic for a sound level and turned the trope UpToEleven by saying [[DeadpanSnarker "My fellow Americans, I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes."]] Needless to say, the Russians were not amused, their Air Force staying on guard for a full half hour after the comment. [[CrossesTheLineTwice The Americans, on the other hand,]] were too busy howling with laughter to care much.

* In the ''WebVideo/YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries'' 5Ds one shot, a routine attempt at this combined with Jack Atlas having NoIndoorVoice resulted in the ''Zero Reverse disaster''. [[note]] In canon, it's because a reactor went into meltdown. Here? All Jack]]

[[folder: Web Animation]]

-->''Alastor:''' Hello? Testing, Testing!

[[folder: Web Video]]

* In a Ukrainian comedy show, a performer tested the microphone replaced "one two three" with "eight nine ten Jack Queen King Ace".

* In the introduction to ''1931: Scheherazade at the Library of Pergamum'' the title character's aunt insists on fiddling with the microphone before the high school graduation ceremony begins.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}}'' Winston said this while preparing for a Video to recall overwatch agents in the cinematic teaser.

-->'''Nappa:''' Is this thing on? ''[coughs noisily]'' You are now thinking about what [[AmbiguouslyGay Zarbon]] did to you while you were unconscious. [[ParanoiaFuel Have fun with that.]]"

* In ''Film/HoubaOnTheTrailOfTheMarsupilami'', Not-so-IntrepidReporter Dan Geraldo does this with ''the business end of a blowpipe''. To be fair, he's thinking it's held by an imposter and not a real jungle native. He gets a faceful of darts for his troubles.

-->'''Mary Wollstonecraft:''' (''tap tap'') Is this thing on? Also, what is this thing?

-->'''Wesker:''' Is this thing on? Excella, I told you I hate AT&T! [sigh] Greetings, you have reached Albert Wesker's... celulate device. I'm currently away on business -- business that does not concern you. If Chris has given you this number I'll deal with you shortly. If you're calling to confirm the date of launch for the final phase of... the plan, please dial 01-800- [background noise] Excella, do not touch that! [more noise] Goddamnit, woman!

---> '''Winston:''' (grabs the camera and pulls it up to point it at him. He is eating a banana.) Is this on?

* A variation of this trope is used for radio communication, where it will likely not be immediately apparent to the operator if his station is transmitting properly or not, even if he ''knows'' the transmitter is on, as radios typically cannot receive anything while transmitting, and will instead be dead silent to the operator. In this case, the operator can call out for a "Radio Check" or a "Signal Report", where they might receive some variant of "Loud and Clear" or "Five by Five" if everything is working properly.
** For amateur radio operators, this is a required part of most radio conversations for logging purposes, especially if done for competitions. When in doubt, you can always just give a signal report of "Five Nine", indicating a perfect signal, whether it was actually that good or not, just to be polite and help the other guy complete his radio log.

* In one of Father Justin [=McCarthy=]'s ''Brother Juniper'' comics the title character is speaking into the lectern microphone in an empty church.

* In ''VideoGame/Overwatch'' Winston said this while preparing for a Video to recall overwatch agents in the cinematic teaser.

* As a variant, Alt-Right leader Richard Spencer had a tape leaked where he goes on an [[VillainousBreakdown unhinged rant]] about how "kikes" and "octoroons" [[note]] an obsolete term for one-eighth black people [[/note]] are responsible for all his problems and how his ancestors would have "enslaved those pieces of shit". Needless to say, his career hasn't gone to well ever since.

* ''Film/AvengersEndgame'': Before recording his message to Pepper at the beginning of the movie, Tony Stark taps against his helmet and asks "This thing on?"

-->'''Brother Juniper:''' Testing...coal collection...warm hearts or frigid church...testing.

* [[spoiler:Nappa's ghost]] in ''WebVideo/DragonBallAbridged'', while ''mentally'' contacting Vegeta.
-->"Is this thing on? (''coughs noisily'') You are now thinking about what [[AmbiguouslyGay Zarbon]] did to you while you were unconscious. [[ParanoiaFuel Have fun with that.]]"

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}} 2'' has this trope, although rather amusingly, when the fairy godmother is recording an "answering machine message"...

* In ''Disney/HomeOnTheRange'', show cow Maggie says this line and blows at her ''cow bell''.

** In ''Discworld/SoulMusic'', Asphalt the roadie says "One two. One. One. One two," prior to the concert at The Cavern, but doesn't know ''why''.
** One of the silliest and most obviously deliberate examples anywhere occurs in ''Discworld/{{Thud}}'': an ancient recording of a historic dwarven leader begins with a couple of loud knocking noises, followed by "Art thys thyng workyng?"

[[folder:Theater]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* Episodes of ''Podcast/TheMagnusArchives'' are in the form of recordings the archivist is making of statements about supernatural experiences. He utters the "1-2-3" version at the start of the first episode.
[[/folder]]

Not to be confused with IsThisThingStillOn, though the two are vaguely similar. Also, Is This Thing Still On will sometimes follow Is This Thing On.

* ''Webcomic/{{Precocious}}'': In [[http://www.precociouscomic.com/archive/comic/2012/12/28 one strip,]] Ursula's unfamiliarity with microphones causes her to accidentally QuoteMine herself.

* A variation of this trope is used for radio communication, where it will likely not be immediately apparent to the operator if his station is transmitting properly or not, even if he ''knows'' the transmitter is on, as radios typically cannot receive anything while transmitting, and will instead be dead silent to the operator. In this case, the operator can call out for a "Signal Check" or a "Signal Report", where they might receive some variant of "Loud and Clear" or "Five by Five" if everything is working properly.

* Marika Kato of the ''Series/BodaciousSpacePirates'' addresses the passengers in her first attack starting with questions about whether the microphone is already transmitting.

-->'''Mark:'''Say something. Anything.\\

* At one point in his Presidency, UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan was asked to talk into a mic for a sound level and turned the trope UpToEleven by saying [[DeadpanSnarker "My fellow Americans, I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes."]] Needless to say, the Russians were not amused, their Air Force staying on guard for a full half hour after the comment. [[CrossesTheLineTwice The Americans, on the other hand,]] were too busy [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments howling with laughter]] to care much.