Basic Trope: A time-traveler asks a passerby what year it is after traveling.
- Straight: Alice and Bob are sent back in time and ask a local, Robert, what year it is.
- Exaggerated: Alice and Bob travel somewhen, ask a passerby what year it, leave, and do it again until they're in the year they're aiming for.
- Logical Extreme: Alice demands Robert tell her the current month, day, and year in the Gregorian calendar system; the time in both Coordinated Universal Time and the local time zone down to the second; and the position of the moon, as of the exact point when she is done talking.
- Downplayed
- Alice asks for the date or weekday, and maybe even the month, knowing or assuming they can't be too far in the past and that that question draws less suspicion.
- Alice goads Robert into a conversation until he discloses information on current events that indicate what time they've traveled to.
- Justified
- Time Police Officers Alice and Bob have to follow protocols to make sure that they are in the right time period.
- Along with knowing the year, Alice also has to confirm that people still speak English in the future so they can communicate.
- Alice is a Robot and needs to recalibrate her internal clock after the time shift.
- Subverted
- Robert gives them same date they left; so it turns out Alice built a Teleporter instead of a Time Machine and they're just two states over.
- After catching Robert's attention, Bob compliments him and asks where he got his hat.
- Double Subverted
- The teleporter took Alice and Bob to Another Dimension where the Gregorian calendar was never invented and they're actually a few centuries off from when they think they are.
- Bob deduces what year they are in because the store Robert names is closed in the future.
- Inverted: Robert has seen a lot of time travelers in his time and asks Alice and Bob what year they've come from.
- Parodied
- Alice and Bob appear to have gone back to Dark Age Europe, but "Sir Robert" reveals its a Renaissance Fair twenty years in the future.
- Alyx and Beep traveled back to the same year from a more distant future and ask Alice and Bob what year it is.
- Alice and Bob traveled back to The Big Rotten Apple and Robert is a Jerkass who just tells them to piss off.
- Averted
- Alice's mom gives Exposition of what her plans were that day before Alice can ask where or when she is.
- Alice and Bob don't come across anyone in the time they travel to.
- Defied:
- Alice and Bob knew what time they were going to before they got there.
- Alice has a universal clock that tells her when she has gone to and doesn't bother to ask Robert.
- Zig-Zagged: ???
- Enforced: Alice and Bob are characters in a historical Edutainment Show and need to make sure the kids know what time period they're learning about.
- Lampshaded
- Robert tells Alice and Bob what year it is but comments on how odd their question is.
- Bob explains to Alice that time travelers ask the locals what year they're in all the time.
- Discussed: "Bob, we can't just ask them what year it is. Who does that? We can't draw suspicion on us."
- Conversed: "You built a clock into that thing, right Alice? Because I don't want to go around asking old-timey strangers what day it is."
- Invoked: Alice didn't tell Bob what year they're going to just so she can do a Stock Phrase.Bob: You still haven't told me; where did we go to?Alice: You mean "When did we go to?"Bob: (Beat) You didn't not tell me just so you could do that one bit, did you?
- Exploited
- Alice and Bob travel to a time period where time-travel is publicly available and this would be a reasonable question.
- Robert is an undercover Time Police officer and arrests Alice and Bob in a sting.
- Played for Laughs: Alice's faulty time machine gave Bob a little Harmless Electrocution and he asks her what year he's in when he regains consciousness five minutes later.
- Played for Drama
- Robert's answer confirms that the time machine brought Alice back to the day her father died.
- Bob asks Robert for the year, only to recognize Robert as his estranged grandfather who left his mother as a child.
- The villain pushes Alice through a time machine while trying to Save the World, and future Bob's innocent response confirms to her that there are hours left until The End of the World as We Know It
- Played for Horror: Alice and Bob ask Robert what year it is, but Robert...
- ...doesn't talk back and just smiles.
- ...isn't alive.
- ...isn't human.
- Implied: ???
- Unparodied: Alice and Bob have already gotten the year from Robert and relay it to Alyx and Beep when they ask them.
- Untwisted: ???
- Deconstructed: Robert gets confused on how anyone could not know what the year is and walks away uncomfortable.
- Reconstructed: It was New Year's Day, so Robert gives Alice and Bob the benefit of the doubt that they lost track of time and tells them the new year.
