So a character is dead, and somehow, despite their many character flaws, they've made it to Heaven, Nirvana, Valhalla, whatever "the good place" is in this series. However, there were apparently some rather strict rules up there that ended up broken, so it's back down to Earth for them. Fortunately, since they're the nice guys, they frequently get to return to full life rather than being condemned to a miserable existence as a ghost or going even further down. This can alternatively also happen if the character proves to be Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth. A character may also invoke this in a bid to get themselves back to Earth or even Hell for whatever reason, usually by provoking Rage Against the Heavens. Another possibility is that they're Only Mostly Dead (which is slightly alive), meaning it's back to the mortal realm they go.
Frequently follows an Ascension to a Higher Plane. A specific form of Barred from the Afterlife, which usually doesn't end as badly. If the person being kicked out is an angel, then this is a Fallen Angel. See Rerouted from Heaven if the character hasn't entered Heaven yet before being turned away from it.
Examples:
open/close all folders
Anime & Manga
- Dragon Ball GT: Piccolo sacrifices himself to ensure the Black Star Dragon Balls can never be used again. Shortly after, in order to help Goku (who was lured into Hell after the barriers between the living world and the afterlife were broken), he goes on a rampage so he'll be kicked out of paradise and cast down into Hell.
- Moretsu Ataro: X-goro dies while trying to retrieve a young girl's balloon from a tree, he is sent back to Earth a month later as Heaven could not find his name in the registry (due to the unusual kanji spelling).
- Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt: The plot revolves around two Fallen Angels, Panty and Stocking, who were banished from Heaven due to their raunchy and rebellious behavior and are forced to buy their way back home by slaying ghosts that are haunting Daten City.
Comic Books
- Lobo got infamously kicked out of Heaven and Hell, effectively immortal by way of being Barred from the Afterlife, because he was too much of a psychotic rowdy bastard for either side to stand. Notably, even the Warrior Heaven of Valhalla considers him too violent.
- The Simpsons: In one story, Gil is kicked out of Heaven after selling an Angel harp wax that melted the harp.
- Suske en Wiske: In De Sprietatoom the villain Savantas dies in the end and goes to Hell first, then Heaven, where he is kicked out because he needs to repent for his sins. Savantas does this by going back to professor Barabas and informing him that the invention he tried to steal all throughout the story (an atomic shrinking device) should in fact be destroyed because it can only do harm to people. Barabas agrees and does so earning Savantas his entry into Heaven.
Comic Strips
- In an early arc of Dilbert, Dogbert died and, on account of being a dog, got into Heaven. Being the bastard he is, it didn't take him long to get thrown out.
- Nero: In De Paarse Futen Nero dreams he is refused entry in Heaven because "he is not wearing a shirt" (Nero was lost at the sea in an earlier scene and only wearing pants). Eventually he is thrown into Hell's cooking pots until he finally wakes up and realizes it was All a Dream.
- Robert Crumb once drew a comic strip where Mr. Natural is hit by a car and then goes to Heaven where he meets God. Natural is however not very impressed and finds the whole concept "corny". Thus God lets one of his angels kick Natural back down to Earth.
Fan Works
- Do You Think *I* Could Be Redeemed? (Turtledove_Mermaid): Defied with Winnersnote . While Heavenborn angels can become a Fallen Angel, Winners are human souls who belong in Heaven and can't fall as their souls are cleansed of sin (or at least can't be kicked out of they do sin while as a Winner angel as with Adam). The Speaker of God explained to Vox as he atoned for his sins and genuinely changed for the better, he's ascended to Heaven and his soul is cleansed and sin can't take ahold of him. But this means even if he committed a crime that would normally damn a living human, he can't return to Hell to reunite with the Vees unless they seek redemption and ascend too.
- Mike's New Ghostly Family: The ghosts of Missing Children Incident's victims managed to briefly pass on to Heaven after they were freed of their metal prison after the burning of Henry's trap pizzeria. However, because they killed many innocent night guards when they were Hostile Animatronics, God casted them out of Heaven, but since they never committed any of the sins as living humans, He decided to be more lenient with His rules and sent them back to Earth to atone for their sins, their first step being bettering the life of Mike Schmidt, eventually becoming his new family.
Films — Animation
- All Dogs Go to Heaven: as Charlie B. Barkin learns after his old partner/business rival bumps him off, he has a spot in heaven, because dogs are inherently good — even the rather unscrupulous Charlie. Unfortunately, he ends up getting kicked out after he steals a golden pocketwatch representing his lifespan and turns it back, and is doomed to go to the other place once his clock runs out. In the end, though, the heroics he shows earns him back his place in heaven.
Films — Live-Action
- Dogma. Rufus is frequently tossed out of Heaven for being loud and annoying. He's also allowed back in after he's had a chance to cool off. His aid to Bethany in the film allows him back in a little earlier than usual.
- This happens to Lindsey's mother in Rapture-Palooza, who got sent back to Earth the day after being raptured for being too obnoxious and judgmental during her time in Heaven, leaving her miserable for the remainder of the film. Humorously shown here.
Literature
- The Bible: Played With in the sense that the characters didn't die beforehand, but Adam and Eve, the first two human beings, were exiled from the Garden of Eden (which is practically Heaven) for going against God's word of not eating the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid: In the "Do-it-Yourself Book", one comic features a man who arrives in a Fluffy Cloud Heaven, only to be kicked off the cloud when he reveals he stole a snack at age eight.
- Brother Lustig: Lustig receives a magical bag from Peter that can hold anything he wishes. After many adventures, he dies and is eventually denied entry into Heaven. The soldier then gives back the bag, claiming it has "no longer use to him." When Peter takes the bag, however, the soldier says: "I wish I was in the bag", causing him to be in Heaven after all. Peter tries to get him out of the bag, but God appears and tells him to leave matters as they are.
- Gambling Hansel: The eponymous character is so addicted to gambling that he is refused entry into Heaven. He is allowed in Hell, but there he creates so much havoc by winning every gambling game that he is eventually thrown out of there as well, causing his soul to crack and have the pieces fly into all the gambling addicts alive today.
- Psyche played with since Psyche is taken to Eros's cloud palace alive, but it is a kind of paradise and she certainly thought there was a good possibility she was about to die. But when she looks upon him, breaking her promise, she's cast out and must endure a series of trials to redeem herself. Once she does, she is allowed to ascend to a higher plain and they remarry as equals.
- "The Tailor In Heaven": A tailor gets into Heaven, there he sees a woman stealing on Earth, so he throws a stool from Heaven at her. After God finds this out, he throws the tailor out of Heaven, because of losing the stool.
Live-Action TV
- The Brittas Empire: In "The Last Day", Brittas (barely) makes it into Heaven after he is killed saving Carole from a falling water tank. However, it doesn't take very long before Brittas' obnoxious personality takes its toll there and he is returned back to Earth for the next 50 years. He is of course not told this, being told instead that he has been given another opportunity to pursue his Dream of uniting the world through sports.
- Hercules: The Legendary Journeys: Archangel Michael sends Iolaus back to Earth at the end of the "Revelations" episode after he snuck out and helped Hercules stop The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse from destroying the world. Even though it is called a punishment, the subtext is that being sent back is actually a reward for restoring The Light's faith in mankind since he can be with his friends and loved ones.
- Daniel Jackson of Stargate SG-1 Ascended at the end of season 5 and occasionally showed up to help his friends throughout season 6, kind of stretching the Ancients' non-interference rules. But then he tried to stop Anubis from destroying Abydos in the "Full Circle" episode and they made him descend.
Music
- Discussed in Old Number Seven by The Devil Makes Three, since it's about an alcoholic who is quite certain that his drinking will get him thrown out of heaven soon.
Radio
- John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme: One sketch has a woman arriving at Heaven, only for the angel to note she was broadly agnostic. Things get worse when it turns out she had a coffee mug that proclaimed "if there's no chocolate in Heaven, I don't want to go". And there is no chocolate in Heaven. While she insists she shouldn't be judged by a silly mug, the angel says all they can go on are the things she said and did while alive, and she did use that mug a lot.
Video Games
- Destiny 2: This is revealed to have happened to Cayde-6 in "The Final Shape". As he describes it to Ikora, when he died his final death, he became one with the Traveler, merged with his Ghost, Sundance, and fully suffused in the Light. Then, at the end of the “Season Of The Wish” storyline, Crow (unknowingly) made a wish upon Riven - a wish that he could make peace with Cayde for what he had done to him. Riven fulfilled that wish by forcibly restoring Cayde to life, within the Pale Heart of the Traveler, as a construct of pure Light. As Cayde puts it to Ikora, he missed the feel of that peace on the other side even more than he missed her.
Web Animation
- Helluva Boss: In the episode "C.H.E.R.U.B", the cherubs Cletus, Keenie and Collin are kicked out of Heaven by their superior, Deerie, for accidentally getting Lyle Lipton killed while fighting with I.M.P.
Webcomics
- In Narbonic Mell was allowed into Heaven by an angel who insisted, quite forcefully, on apologizing for the destruction some cherubim wrecked upon emerging from one of Dave's portals. She wasn't there long before she was thrown out, although she did get plenty of business cards though, since they really needed a lawyer.
- In Transmission Reg achieved Nirvana after inventing the perfect chip (that's "fries" for Americans) recipe, a few strips later they threw him back out.
Web Videos
- Played for laughs in a Smosh sketch about the bad parts of Heaven. One of them is that your clothes must be spotlessly white at all times, and the second they get dirty, you get sent straight to hell.
Western Animation
- Disenchantment: After waking up in Heaven, Elfo receives a message from Bean and Luci that he needs to go to Hell so they can bring him back to life. Initially, Elfo asks God to cast him to Hell, but He refuses since Elfo is far too good of a person. Then he tries being rude enough to get kicked out, but God easily sees through it... at least until Elfo makes a passing rude comment towards a severely mentally handicapped man, which gets him immediately and brutally thrown to Hell. Although, the ending of the episode reveals that this was God's plan all along.
- A Robot Chicken sketch has a guy who goes into Heaven and looks through a book detailing facts about his life. He gets sent to Hell for using the book to only find disgusting facts like how long would a 6-foot wall made out of all of the poop he's produced run for.
Satan: 2.7 miles?
Man: I know!