"I can't be sick now! It's still summer vacation! There's no school to stay home from! This is my time! SOMEBODY OWES ME BIG FOR THIS!"
— Calvin, Calvin and Hobbes
Aw yeah, after all this waiting, the big day is almost here! Maybe you're going to a concert, or a special celebrity appearance, or a holiday, or your birthday, but whatever it is, you're utterly stoked! And nothing is going to stop you from having the time of your–
*achoo!*
...Oh, Crap!
A great way to add more conflict and stakes to a Sick Episode is for a character to come down with something right before they have a big event planned. This gives a "ticking clock" of sorts for them to speed up their recovery so they're not Out Sick; if they don't, they may go to the event anyway, possibly Feigning Healthiness, but likely won't enjoy it as much, and risk infecting more people.
It's also common for characters to try and defy this trope during a Plague Episode, because of course everyone else in their household gets sick right before they have a big event coming up. Cue them becoming temporarily Terrified of Germs, refusing to interact with any of those potential sickies.
On a lesser scale, they could simply be upset they're sick on the weekend or a holiday instead of missing school.
May overlap with a Lost Voice Plot, which, while not necessarily always caused by illness, often complicates the stakes when a character has to give some sort of oral performance, such as a speech or a song. A physical injury can also interfere with a character's plans, especially a sporting event. Can also overlap with A Birthday, Not a Break if the character is sick and injured on their birthday, often leading to them missing their own festivities.
This trope can be invoked when someone hopes that a person they dislike (usually someone they’re competing with, like a classmate trying out for the same sports team or big role in a play) conveniently gets put out of commission before the big event and can’t come. They may even try to get the other person sick somehow to put them out of commission.
Compare Career-Ending Injury, which is this trope taken to the permanent extreme, Drama-Preserving Handicap, and Game-Breaking Injury. May overlap with Worf Had the Flu.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Ah! My Goddess: Hasegawa was "volunteered" for a race by Tamiya and Otaki, and she clearly lacks the confidence needed to perform in the race. She trains with Belldandy and Keiichi, seeming to build her confidence and skill. But then, on the day of the race, she claims to be ill, and it looks like the Motor Club will have to forfeit. Belldandy has a talk with Hasegawa, who reveals that she once feigned ill during the day of a cooking class because she was too scared of actually doing the work in front of others, and now, she's doing the same thing because she's afraid, but she hates herself because she swore she'd never do that again. But a gentle bit of encouragement from Belldandy helps give Hasegawa the confidence she needs to try again.
- In Azumanga Daioh, Yomi ends up falling ill before she and the other girls go to an amusement park. They try to give her the play-by-play, but it doesn’t work. The manga doesn’t show the girls at the park, but the anime does.
- Candy♡Candy: Aspiring actress Susanna Marlowe performs a Diving Save to protect Terry from being hit by a falling lamp before the play, and takes a nasty hit to the leg. The poor girl is Driven to Suicide as a result.
- Lady!!:
- After feeling like she likes his brother more, Edward decides to enter a horse-riding competition to impress Lynn. He ends up training so rigourously that he pushes his horse too far and ends up injured. Lynn ends up visiting him afterwards, and he realizes that he was wrong to think that.
- Vivian hopes to represent Great Britain in the upcoming Olympics, having trained her entire life as an equestrian. Before the qualifier, her "friend" sabotages her and leaves her unable to walk.
- In How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Lift?, right before a big arm-wrestling competition where she really wanted to compete with Hibiki, Akemi catches a nasty cold and is forced to stay home. Due to how only three people entered on the women's side of the competition, this leaves Hibiki with only one person to beat to win the competition and be able to buy the sound system she really wants: new character Gina Boyd.
- Moero! Top Striker has a variant of this trope. On the day of the semi-finals, Luke is so full of sadness at the thought of leaving behind the team (since his family is set to move the next day as due to their circus troupe lifestyle) that he can't concentrate on a thing and keeps fumbling all his shots, leading to the opposing team scoring more points. Coach Carone tries to bench Luke, but Roberto and Hikaru beg him not to because they know why Luke is sad and want his last day on the team to be memorable. When all eleven of the players join in, Coach Carone relents and lets him play, and the team emerge victorious.
- No Matter How I Look at It, It's You Guys' Fault I'm Not Popular!: In chapter 25 of the manga and episode three of the anime, Tomoko tries to catch her brother Tomoki's cold so she can avoid playing dodgeball at school. However, she only starts to get sick before the weekend, as she didn't realize it takes time for symptoms to show up.
- Ranma ½: Akane agrees to fill in for the Furinkan High Girls Rhythmic Gymnastics Team against Hebereke Girl's School and their captain, Kodachi Kuno. Unfortunately, the night before the contest, Akane trips on a balance ball, severely twisting her ankle. This forces Ranma to substitute for Akane.
- Played for Drama In Season 2 of the Umamusume: Pretty Derby (2018) anime: Tokai Teio's dreams of winning the Japanese Triple Crown undefeated like her inspiration Symboli Rudolf are dashed not by a loss on the race track, but by an earlier injury that left Teio unable to race in the Kikuka Sho to begin with. Naturally, Teio doesn't take this well.
- In the BNW OVA, Biwa Hayahide catches a cold right before the relay race being held in honor of her and her friends, leading Narita Brian to take her position.
Comic Books
- The Baby-Sitters Club: In Kristy and the Walking Disaster on the day of the game against the Bashers, Nicky Pike wakes up with a sore throat and fever, meaning he can't pitch the game — and means Kristy has to sub in her brother David Michael, who is second-best.
- Emmie & Friends: In Entirely Emmie Emmie's best friend Briana gets sick right before the seventh grade end of year class trip, leaving Emmie without either of her close female friends there — Sarah already can't go as she's attending a quinceñera.
Comic Strips
- Calvin and Hobbes:
- In one strip, Calvin gets sick during summer vacation, causing him to complain about not being able to miss school and demand, "Somebody owes me big for this!"
- Another story shows just how sick Calvin is when he doesn't raise a fuss about being sick on the weekend.
- In another story, Calvin gets the chicken pox just as summer vacation starts.
- In one FoxTrot strip, Peter is getting ready to go to the prom, only to get a phone call from his girlfriend, Denise, who says she can't go because she has the chicken pox. This can be seen as Laser-Guided Karma as just before Peter got the call, he was cruelly mocking Paige for not having a prom date.
Fan Works
- Cheating Death: Those That Lived: Platinum becomes the female District One tribute for the 44th Hunger Games because the six girls who ranked higher than her are all hospitalized, arrested, or get pregnant during the weeks leading up to the Reaping. Whether this is ill-timed is played with in that this is the Hunger Games, but District One is one of the districts that trains their tributes to see the Games as glorious and to win.
The chosen volunteer had discovered she was pregnant, and her love for her unborn child instantly outweighed her desire to win the Hunger Games. The second volunteer broke her leg after falling down the stairs. The third volunteer had contracted a nasty case of the flu and was estimated to not recover for at least three weeks. The fourth volunteer had gotten into a car accident and, while alive, had broken both her legs and four of her ribs. The fifth volunteer had gotten herself arrested for illegal possession of particularly funky, hard hitting morph[l]ing. Meanwhile, the sixth volunteer had entered a coma after an ice cream binge following being dumped by her boyfriend.
This was all it took for Platinum to become first in line to volunteer and be told of this mere minutes before the reaping began. When a small girl who seemed to be having issues breathing made her way to the stage Platinum uttered the famous words.
"I volunteer!" - A Green Christmas: Buttercup is quite disappointed and grumpy when she ends up with a stomach flu on Christmas Eve. When Blossom ends up catching her flu by the next morning, she's also let down by the poor timing, but the two end up having a merry Christmas anyway since Professor Utonium and Bubbles cheer them up with presents and other things.
- What sets off the plot of Luan's Problem is that Luan accidentally injures her brother Lincoln with a prank, so badly that he must go to hospital, on his birthday.
Films — Animation
- The conflict of Frozen Fever is Elsa coming down with a cold on the day of Anna's birthday party, which is even more important given how many birthdays she's had to miss celebrating with Anna over the years. Unfortunately, her sneezing gives her bad Power Incontinence that creates chaotic mini snowmen, messing up the festivities.
- This is the driving force for the film The Year Without a Santa Claus. Santa catches a cold before Christmas and decides to take the year off, instead settling to give the residents of Southtown a Christmas miracle.
Films — Live-Action
- Lemonade Mouth: Most of the disasters that affect the band in the lead-up to Rising Star involve the characters getting too sick or injured to perform. Charlie slams his hand in a drawer, making him unable to drum two-handed, while Wes pokes his eye out with a picture frame, so he can't see his keyboard very well. Mo gets very sick, unable to stop coughing even while on stage, while Olivia gets laryngitis — and she's the band's lead singer. This leads to the band having to give up on the victory that night.
Literature
- American Girls Collection: In Changes for Molly, Molly is chosen to play the lead role of Miss Victory in a big dance performance, but she wants to have beautiful curly hair instead of her normal straight hair. To achieve this, she sleeps with her hair wet and in pin curls every night but catches a bad cold before the big night and can’t perform. The movie Molly: An American Girl on the Home Front cuts out the cold and Molly does perform in the show.
- American Girls: Josefina: In Josefina’s Surprise, Christmas is coming and the town is going to celebrate Las Posadas, a nine-night-long reenactment of the Bible story of Mary and Joseph (or Maria and José, as they are called in Spanish) searching for shelter before Jesus is born. Josefina is asked if she'd like to play Maria, but she turns it down, as she doesn’t feel ready. Margarita plays Maria instead, but on Christmas Eve, she catches a cold from being outside during the winter every night and can’t play the role. By then, Josefina feels more confident in herself after going through a hard experience with her family, and she volunteers to play Maria.
- Angelina Ballerina: In the book Angelina and the Princess, Angelina's ballet class is going to perform for the Princess of Mouseland, but Angelina stays up all night and winds up catching a cold on the day of the auditions. When she sneaks out to the auctions anyway, she is too tired and ill to dance properly, so Flora and Felicity are given the lead roles. When Angelina is fully cured, Flora sprains her ankle right before the show, so Angelina takes her place and the performance goes on without a hitch.
- Arthur: In Arthur's Chicken Pox, Arthur gets chicken pox the week before the circus comes to town. D.W. teases him at first, telling him, "If you're a good little boy and don't scratch, I'll bring you back a balloon from the circus!" However, she gets jealous and resorts to Playing Sick. By the time of the circus, Arthur is better, but D.W. is actually sick. Arthur promises that if she's a good little girl and doesn't scratch, he'll bring her back a balloon.
- The Baby-Sitters Club: One of the Little Sister books, Karen's Chicken Pox, has Karen try to avoid her little sister Emily, who has the chicken pox, since Halloween is coming up. As the title suggests, she does unfortunately catch the disease and has to miss out on trick-or-treating.
- Candy Soup is a book based on Rugrats. In this book, Kimi gets a cold on Halloween night, rendering her unable to trick-or-treat with her friends. Chuckie promises to get Kimi some candy, but his mission is compromised when Kira tells him not to do so, as she needs to eat healthy food, such as soup. The babies make their own candy soup by filling Kimi's Halloween pail with water and mixing their candy in it. Kimi ends up finding the candy soup yucky, and Kira is initially upset over it. When Angelica and Susie explain the situation to her, she realizes they meant well and lets Kimi have just one piece of candy.
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid:
- In Rodrick Rules, Greg tries to think of something embarrassing he can use as leverage against Rodrick. He remembers that Rodrick got sick the day before he was supposed to get his seventh-grade yearbook picture taken, and Dad had to find his sixth-grade picture and send it in. Somehow he messed it up and sent in Rodrick's second-grade picture instead, and it actually got printed.
Greg: Unfortunately, Rodrick was smart enough to rip that page out of his yearbook. So if I'm ever gonna find something to use against him, I guess I have to keep digging.
- In The Last Straw, Greg is trying to impress his dad by showing how manly he is so he won't get sent to military school and signs them both up for a Boy Scout camping trip. Greg wakes up really sick the day of the trip, but Dad still has to go since he signed up to be a chaperone. He ends up having an awful time since he gets paired with two brothers whose dad couldn't go, and they get into a fight that lands one of them in the emergency room.
- In The Third Wheel, Greg sees what appears to be chicken pox on Rowley's face on the night of the school dance. Since he needs Rowley to be his wingman, he forces him to cover up his blemishes with a scarf and hat, and wear gloves so he doesn't scratch. He tries to keep his distance from Rowley the whole time but doesn't tell Abigail the same. Subverted as it turns out to just be acne.
- In Rodrick Rules, Greg tries to think of something embarrassing he can use as leverage against Rodrick. He remembers that Rodrick got sick the day before he was supposed to get his seventh-grade yearbook picture taken, and Dad had to find his sixth-grade picture and send it in. Somehow he messed it up and sent in Rodrick's second-grade picture instead, and it actually got printed.
- Junie B. Jones:
- Invoked in Junie B. Jones Is (Almost) A Flower Girl. Junie B. wants to be the flower girl in her Aunt Flo's wedding, but that role was already promised to Bo, her fiancé's little sister, so Junie B. is promised that she can be the flower girl if Bo can't. That night, Junie B. wishes on a star that Bo will get sick, but her mother angrily tells her it's not nice to wish for that, and tells her to make a different one. Junie B. tries wishing for Bo to get head lice instead, but her mother doesn't like that either. Junie B. gives up, and resorts to silently hoping that Bo's dad's car will get stuck at a really long railroad crossing or in a giant puddle of Krazy Glue.
Okay, Star, never mind the whole dumb thing. Only now I won't be a flower girl for my whole entire life, probably. And so I hope my mother is happy. Amen.
- In the first grade book One-Man Band, Junie B. breaks her big toe right before a big kickball game after kicking a full watering can. This prevents her from playing in the game, so she joins the halftime show instead.
- Invoked in Junie B. Jones Is (Almost) A Flower Girl. Junie B. wants to be the flower girl in her Aunt Flo's wedding, but that role was already promised to Bo, her fiancé's little sister, so Junie B. is promised that she can be the flower girl if Bo can't. That night, Junie B. wishes on a star that Bo will get sick, but her mother angrily tells her it's not nice to wish for that, and tells her to make a different one. Junie B. tries wishing for Bo to get head lice instead, but her mother doesn't like that either. Junie B. gives up, and resorts to silently hoping that Bo's dad's car will get stuck at a really long railroad crossing or in a giant puddle of Krazy Glue.
- Princess Academy: The night before the ball where all the academy girls will be presented to the prince, Britta suddenly comes down with a bad fever and can’t attend. The prince is her childhood friend Steffan. When her father heard the prince’s next bride would be chosen from the girls of Mount Eskel, he sent Britta there a year before, with orders to pretend she was an orphan whose only living relatives were from there. She became ill from anxiety at the prospect of having to see Steffan and tell him she was sent there to woo him.
- The Tailor of Gloucester: The eponymous tailor ends up catching an ambiguous, though non-fatal, illness just before Christmas when he's supposed to be sewing a suit for the mayor. Luckily, some mice sew the suit for him, and he gets better on Christmas Day.
- In her book When You Look Like Your Passport It's Time to Go Home, Erma Bombeck tells stories about how the more expensive a vacation is the more sick she feels. She's never sick in a dumpy motel room, oh no, it's always when she's in a high-class suite. Her family spent a fortune to get a room on the Mardis Gras parade route, and she can't get off her bed, that sort of thing.
Live-Action TV
- The Bernie Mac Show: In "Now You Got It," Bernie's whole family gets the flu right before he's set to go on a trip to Vegas. He avoids it like crazy for most of the episode... until he eats some contaminated cake.
- The Big Bang Theory:
- In "The Large Hadron Collision", Leonard is invited to visit CERN over Valentine's Day. He plans on taking Penny with him, but Sheldon points out that the Roommate Agreement requires Leonard to take him instead. Ultimately, it doesn't matter, since both Penny and Sheldon get sick the night before leaving and can't go.
- In "The Sibling Realignment", Amy gets pink eye a week before her wedding.
- In "The Stockholm Syndrome", on the flight to Stockholm, Sheldon notices that Penny is going to the bathroom very frequently. He is worried that she has a stomach bug, and he will get infected, which will ruin his Nobel Prize ceremony. She's actually pregnant.
- The Brady Bunch: In the episode "Coming-Out Party," both Cindy and Carol come down with tonsillitis and need surgery just as the family is scheduled to go on a boat trip. Fortunately, they manage to reschedule the trip for the following week, when Cindy and Carol are all better.
- The Brittas Empire: In "Mr Brittas Changes Trains", Helen comes down with a case of lockjaw the day Brittas intends to take her out to a dinner which will determine whether or not he gets the role of British Representative for the European Leisure Industry Standards Committee. Despite his attempts to cure her of her condition before the dinner, it only starts going away when Laura agrees to take Helen's place at the dinner.
- Clarissa Explains It All:
- In "Sick Days," Clarissa catches a cold, which prevents her from attending her school's Ancient Greece Day pageant, where Queen Latifah is scheduled to perform. She attempts a Zany Scheme to go anyway, but it fails. In the end, however, Ancient Greece Day is cancelled because the teacher who was in charge of it also gets sick.
- In "The Understudy," Clarissa is chosen to understudy her schoolmate Sarah Beth in the role of Mabel in the school production of The Pirates of Penzance, and she doesn't bother to learn the part because she doesn't think she'll have to go on. But then Sarah Beth catches strep throat just before opening night, forcing Clarissa to learn the part in record time.
- Chantay is cast as the female lead of the school musical in season 9 of Degrassi: The Next Generation, but her boyfriend Danny is jealous that she gets to do a stage kiss with Peter. Since he's coming down with a cold, he switches his bottle with Peter's so Peter will catch his cold. However, after the switch, Chantay drinks from what she thinks is Peter's bottle so she won't catch Danny's cold. She gets sick and despair because her whole family had bought tickets to see her and now she has to sit the show out. Fortunately, Danny and the rest of the cast and crew are able to arrange a special encore performance with Chantay's family in attendance again later that week.
- Dennis the Menace (1959): In "Junior Astronaut," Dennis wins a contest to meet an astronaut, but isn't able to go because he catches chickenpox.
- Dumbo's Circus: In the episode "Lilli Comes Home", the circus travels to Lilli's hometown, but Lilli comes down with a measles-like illness just before they're supposed to perform. So the others build a mechanical replica of Lilli to perform in her place, and Hilarity Ensues.
- Friends: In "The One with the Chicken Pox," Phoebe has plans with Ryan, an old boyfriend who's on a two-week furlough from the Navy. Unfortunately, they get scuttled when she gets chicken pox, which she eventually gives to Ryan. The two end up spending the two weeks in quarantine, unable to do anything but scratch each other.
- Full House: "A Pox In Our House" features a case of chicken pox that sweeps through the house and infects Stephanie, Jesse, and Joey, prompting a crisis because someone who isn't sick needs to look after Michelle and help the trio. Unfortunately, everyone but Joey has important plans—Stephanie wants to meet a professional ballerina who's coming to her dance class, Jesse has a doo-wop concert, D.J. hopes to go to her first-ever slumber party, and Danny is scheduled to interview the Golden State Warriors. Ultimately, D.J. chooses to sacrifice going to the party so she can stay home and take care of things, which earns her praise from everyone else.
- The Golden Girls: In "Flu Attack," Rose, Blanche, and Dorothy all get sick right before a big charity banquet, leading to them all insulting and squabbling with each other. While they initially plan to stay home, Sophia reveals that the organizers hinted that one of them is set to win the "Best Friend of the Friends of Good Health" Award. The prospect of winning makes them all go to the banquet anyway, even though they're clearly still sick, much to their dates' chagrin. In a final twist, Sophia ends up winning the Best Friend Award, but she cleverly uses her acceptance speech to talk about how the friendship she experiences at home inspires her, prompting the girls to stop fighting.
- Good Luck Charlie: In the B-plot of "Teddy Rebounds", P.J. and Emmett hire a guitarist named Jimmy to be the third member of their band. Unfortunately, Jimmy gets sick as a result of Charlie sneezing on him, and as a result, he is unable to play in a gig P.J.'s band booked. Bob has to take Jimmy's place as the temporary third member, since he can play bass guitar.
- It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: In the episode "The Gang Gets Quarantined", a flu epidemic hits Philadelphia, and Frank locks the gang in a room in the bar so they don't catch it and miss a Boyz II Men concert. They all end up sick anyway. It's double-subverted when the Gang turns out to just be going through alcohol withdrawal...but it ends up being All for Nothing anyway, as Boyz II Men themselves caught the flu and the concert gets cancelled.
- Life with Derek: In "Not So Sweet Sixteen", Casey is unable to attend her own sweet sixteen because she gets appendicitis and is stuck in the hospital.
- My Wife and Kids: In "Outbreak Monkey," Michael scores tickets to see LeBron James play at Madison Square Garden, only for the flu pandemic to hit the city, eventually spreading around his household just days before the game. He desperately tries to avoid catching the bug, taping up the windows, refusing to touch people, and even spraying disinfectant on his family, but ultimately gets sick the day of the game after taking his daughter to the doctor. He goes to the game anyway, but inadvertently infects LeBron, causing him to sit out the game. Even worse, the jumbotron reveals Michael as the culprit, and everyone at the game hates him.
- Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide: Ned's subplot in "Sick Days" has him desperately try to avoid the flu epidemic going around school so he can meet stunt biker Matt Hoffman, who's coming to school at the end of the day. He even resorts to becoming a Bubble Boy to prevent airborne illness. Unfortunately, his bubble gets stuck right by a window, causing the plastic to heat up. The nurse checks the bubble's temperature and concludes Ned has a fever, sending him home early. Ironically, Cookie, who's managed to avoid the nurse despite being seriously ill, sticks around long enough to meet and bike with Matt (and seemingly infect him in the process).
- Parks and Recreation: In the episode "Flu Season", Leslie develops a severe case of the flu the day she is supposed to give a major presentation to the Pawnee Chamber of Commerce in support of the Pawnee Harvest Festival. She knows that if Harvest Festival isn't approved it could mean the end for the Parks and Recreation department, so despite having a dangerously high fever she sneaks out of the hospital to deliver her speech. Despite Leslie being slightly delirious her speech is a complete success and the Chamber of Commerce votes in favor of the Harvest Festival.
- Psych: The episode "Lets Doo-Wop It Again" opens with Shawn's appendix bursting right as a major philanthropist gets shot and hospitalized; Gus's acapella group from college wants to hire him, but since Shawn is bedridden, he has to resort to facetiming on an iPad to work on the case.
- Shining Time Station: In "Achoo", Mr. Conductor comes down with a cold on the day he plans to visit his penguin friends in the South Pole. Stacy Jones advises him to stay at home and get plenty of rest, but he insists that he can cure himself with his magic. Billy Twofeathers tells him that he's not sure if it's such a good idea, as if he's sick, then his magic might not be working properly. Billy is right because as a result of his cold, Mr. Conductor's magic causes glasses of water to change people's voices and a balloon to talk and fall in love with Schemer. Mr. Conductor tries to go to the South Pole anyway, and the children have to play his favorite song on the jukebox to get him to come back to the station so he can get some rest, recover, and use his magic to put things right.
- One episode of Son of a Critch sees Mark coming down with a nasty cold the same week that the Pope is visiting St. John's. This complicates his plans to get a blessing from the Pope and to see Fox do a reading for His Holiness. Luckily, his mom helps launch a scheme so that he can both see Fox do the reading and get a personal blessing from the Pope. On the downside, this also results in Mark's illness spreading to the rest of the family.
- In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Sarek," the titular ambassador has been working diplomatic relations with the enigmatic Legarans for 93 years. Now he just has to settle a final few points before the treaty can be signed. Unfortunately he's developed Bendii Syndrome and starts telepathically projecting random emotions into the minds of the people around him, causing chaos among the crew. This is a horrible time to succumb, not just because it would set back Legaran relations by years but it's a terrible way for such a respected ambassador to end his career. The only solution is a mind meld with Picard, letting him suffer all of the random emotions while Sarek benefits from Picard's mental discipline for a few hours.
- The Thundermans: "May Z-Force Be With You" begins with Cherry asking Phoebe to cheer her on at the school ping-pong tournament, but when Principal Bradford tosses his paddle aside, it hits Phoebe who falls off the stairs, leaving her injured with a broken neck and shin on the day of the Thunder Twins' Z-Force interview. The interviewer does not want to see Phoebe injured, and rescheduling is not allowed, so Phoebe has Cherry pretend to be her.
Max: Z-Force members don't get hurt, they do the hurting!
- Torchwood: In "Something Borrowed", Gwen is attacked by a Nostrovite and wakes to find that she has fallen pregnant thanks to it on the morning of her upcoming wedding to Rhys. Naturally, this leads to drama when the others try to convince her to call it off, which she doesn't want to. Ultmately, the wedding goes ahead anyway, but it is marred by the baby's mother coming to collect her child violently, and the guests end up losing their memories of the event because of it.
- Wishbone: In "Sniffing the Gauntlet," Joe, Sam, and David's language arts class is having a spelling bee. While studying, Sam has a snack bar, but learns too late that it contains coconut, which she's allergic to, so she's too sick to go to school the next day, which means David has to take her place in their team.
- Zoey 101: In "The Play," Chase is jealous that Logan gets to do a stage kiss with Zoey in the titular play, so he gets a sick Dustin to cough on Logan's pillow so Chase, as understudy, can take his role instead. However, the pillow falls onto Chase's bed during the night, infecting him instead. The nurse forces him to stay home during the play, but he escapes so he can stop anything from happening between Logan and Zoey.
Puppet Shows
- The Lamb Chop's Play-Along episode "Too Sick to Go to the Circus" has Shari evoke this as a Radish Cure for Charlie Horse and Hush Puppy. The boys pretend to be sick to get out of school, and Shari pretends to be fooled; when they find out their class is taking a field trip to the circus, they insist that they're all better now, but Shari insists that they're still "too sick" and keeps them home.
- Sesame Street: One episode involves Gabi getting the flu on her eighth birthday, and she feels glum (with everyone telling her that her sadness is okay) because while she does still have the piñata and presents, she can't have anyone over. At the end, however, she cheers up when the neighbours sing to her.
- Under the Umbrella Tree:
- In "Gloria Iguana," Iggy catches a cold on the day he's supposed to give a speech at the Lizard Club, so he has Gloria disguise herself as a lizard to give the speech in his place.
- In "The Circus," Gloria has a cold and can't go to the circus with Holly, Iggy and Jacob. But an acrobat from the show comes back to the apartment with them afterwards and helps them stage a mini-circus just for Gloria.
- In the Halloween special, Iggy injures his leg and has to wait at the vet's office in the animal shelter for the results of the X-rays, which means he has to miss his friends' Halloween party. But in the end, his friends can't enjoy the party without him, so they all go to the animal shelter and bring the party to him.
Video Games
- Elite Beat Agents: In the "La La" level, a sprinter falls ill the day before the 100m dash finals. The Elite Beat Agents are called to go on a "Fantastic Voyage" Plot and cheer on his immune system so he can make a swift recovery.
- In Final Fantasy XIV, Culinarian Guildmaster Lyngsath injures his hand in the kitchen just before Lord Lolorito Nanarito, one of the richest men alive and The Dreaded "Chefsbane", books a table at the Bismarck. This forces the Warrior of Light to step up to the plate to placate the business magnate with his favorite meal of smoked raptor to prevent a ruinous food review.
Webcomics
- Questionable Content: Hannelore intends to go to Martin's father's wedding as Martin's "plus one". She's also Martin's ride as he doesn't own a car. Unfortunately, she comes down with a nasty illness
just before it's time to leave for the wedding, leaving Martin without a way to get there. Luckily Claire decides she wants to go, jumping at the opportunity to wear a fancy dress.
Western Animation
- Arthur:
- "Arthur's Chicken Pox," like its source material, has Arthur get sick with chicken pox right before he's set to go to the circus. D.W. spends the episode jealous of the special attention Arthur gets, even Playing Sick to try and steal his thunder. At the end of the episode, Arthur's all better, but D.W. actually comes down with the disease. Unlike the book, however, she's actually excited — in her own words, the circus comes every year, but you only get chicken pox once.
- In one episode, D.W.'s preschool has a School Play of Little Red Riding Hood. D.W. is jealous that Emily is cast as Red Riding Hood, while she is only cast as Tree Number Two, but feels guilty for her jealousy when Emily gets laryngitis and they have to swap roles.
- Bugs Bunny Builders:
- In "The Easter Bunnies", the Easter Bunny comes down with a cold the day before Easter, leaving the Looney Builders to tackle her responsibilities. These include decorating Easter eggs, filling them with candy, hiding them, and standing in for her at the Meet & Greet.
- In "The Snuffles", Lola catches the titular disease on the day that she and the other Looney Builders are assigned to build a new outdoor movie theater for the Looneyburg park in time for the screening of her favorite movie, Wonder Rabbit.
- Caillou: In "Caillou's Puppet Show", Caillou ends up with a cold on the day of a puppet show, and he briefly tries to hide it so he can go to school, though it doesn't take long for his mother to catch on.
- In "Calling Doctor Caillou," Caillou's dad ends up getting sick on the same day he's suppose to take Caillou to his office for Career Day.
- In "Backyard Zoo," Caillou, Clementine, and Leo have to cancel their trip to the zoo due to Clementine's brother Billy getting a toothache.
- Codename: Kids Next Door: In "Operation: M.A.U.R.I.C.E.", Cree gets sucked into the chickenpox cannon she was going to use on the town's kids, while yelling, "I've got class pictures next week!"
- Creature Comforts: In "Pets at the Vets", a hamster recounts having to go to the vet on his birthday due to being slammed in the door.
- Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood: In "Daniel Gets a Cold", Daniel catches a cold right on Prince Wednesday's birthday party, so he complains about missing out on the cake.
- Doc McStuffins:
- In "Run, Doc, Run", Doc sprains her leg right before she plans on doing a run. Thus, Hallie keeps nagging her to rest the leg so that it recovers fast enough.
- Parodied in "A Day Without Cuddles!", when Lambie gets covered in flour on "International Cuddle Day". Due to her doctor persona, Doc likens Lambie's condition to a disease and bans her from cuddling lest she "spread" it.
- Family Guy: Parodied in "Total Recall," when Peter decides the best way to be sick is to be "a woman at work who cannot get sick right now," leading into a Cutaway Gag with Peter as a woman Working Through the Cold.
Coworker: Sweetie, maybe you need to go home.Peter: I'm not going home, I cannot get sick right now. I have way too much to do.Coworker: It's okay, everyone will understand.Peter: No, I cannot get sick right now. It is Kendra's birthday, and the baby shower, and with this move, I— I just cannot get sick right now. I just have to finish typing this... typing this... [begins to faint]Coworker: That's it, I'm taking you home.[The coworker escorts Peter past another coworker, who sneezes]Peter: [points to other coworker] You did this to me!
- Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends: In "The Bloo Superdude and the Great Creator of Everything's Awesome Ceremony of Fun That He's Not Invited To", Bloo gets sick on the day of his creator Mac's birthday, so Frankie makes him stay in bed while she and the rest of the Imaginary Friends celebrate Mac's birthday. Bloo is determined to give Mac his birthday present to him, so in his delusional state, he, as the Bloo Superdude, goes on a quest to attend the Great Creator of Everything's Ceremony.
- Generation O!: In "Deviated Tonsils", Molly gets tonsillitis right before her band has a big gig. She tries treating herself by eating okra, wearing winter clothes, and avoiding yelling, but it doesn't work, so she sings hoarsely during the concert.
- Jelly Jamm: In "Musical Aurora", the gang is excited because of the titular musical aurora. Goomo ends up with a Polka-Dot Disease and is determined not to miss it, so he does everything in his power to cover it up.
- In one episode of Katie and Orbie, Katie gets the chicken pox on the same day as a big Halloween party she and Orbie were throwing. The party happens anyway as it turns out all of Katie's guests already had the chicken pox.
- Kiff: In "Thirst to be the First", Kiff seemingly comes down with a case of "droop tail" on the day she's supposed to test out the school's new water fountain, which she was very excited for. She spends most of the episode trying to sneak out of her house without getting caught by her Bumbling Dad. The ending reveals she did not have droop tail at all and was really suffering from dehydration.
- Kim Possible: In "Sick Day", Kim has a cold when she's asked to guard "Ray X". She takes on the job, but Drakken and Shego manage to steal Ray X anyway. Afterwards, Kim's mom insists that she stay in bed and rest, leaving Ron and Rufus to recover the device. Ray X gets destroyed in the chaos, and it turns out that it was a cure for the common cold.
Ron: I hate irony!
- Little Princess:
- In "I Don't Want a Cold", Princess is sad because she catches a cold on Picnic Day.
- In "I Want to Go to the Fair", the Princess injures her foot so badly that she can't walk. To add insult to injury, this happens on the day a fair comes to town, so the Queen holds a play fair to cheer her up.
- The Loud House:
- In "Sister Act", Lola and Lana switch places and pretend to be each other to get out of doing things they don't like. For Lola, it's a doctor's appointment, and for Lana, it's a dentist's appointment. As a result, Lola ends up catching a cold, rendering her unable to participate in a Beauty Contest, while Lana ends up getting an abscessed tooth, leaving her unable to eat an ice cream sundae she won from a recycling contest. Realizing that those things wouldn't have happened if they just made the appointments they were trying to avoid, the twins end up having to confess what they did to their parents and make the appointments for real so they can get healthy again.
- In "Toads and Tiaras", Lola gets badly injured the day before she is to compete in the Little Miss Prim and Perfect pageant, so Lincoln asks Lana to take her place.
- Madeline:
- In Madeline's Christmas, all the girls except Madeline come down with colds on Christmas Eve, as does Miss Clavel, which prevents the girls from going home to their families for the holidays. Fortunately, in the end all their families come to the school to celebrate Christmas with them there.
- In Madeline and the Costume Party, all the girls, including Madeline, catch the chicken pox just before Pepito and his parents host a costume ball. They recover in time to go to the party, but unfortunately, they still have spots. In the end, however, they go to the ball dressed as various spotted animals. Meanwhile, Pepito catches the chicken pox himself and has to miss the party, but the girls join him in his room and watch the fireworks from his window.
- The Magic School Bus: In "Inside Ralphie," Ralphie gets sick on Broadcast Day, which is when the class is supposed to present on live TV for two hours. They panic and don't think they'll be able to do it without him, but Ms. Frizzle decides that if Ralphie can't come to the class, the class will come to him, and plans a field trip inside his body to see what's making him sick.
- Mickey Mouse Funhouse: Subverted; in "Homesick", Mickey and the gang make plans for a picnic and ask Funny the Funhouse to find them someplace nice, but when Funny starts sneezing, everyone including Funny is convinced that he's sick and are about to call off the picnic, but it turns out that he was actually allergic to the flower on Minnie's hat.
- Milly, Molly:
- In "Spots and Stripes," Milly gets chicken pox on her seventh birthday. Subverted as she has a party anyway, with her guests changing the party theme from stripes to spots to make her feel better.
- In "Class Concert", Molly loses her voice a few days before the eponymous class concert, so Milly has to gather the ingredients for the remedy in time. To add extra angst, Milly blames herself, since she previously wished Molly wasn't singing in the concert.
- Miraculous Ladybug:
- In "Princess Fragrance", Tikki falls deathly ill while Princess Fragrance is attacking Paris, leaving Marinette unable to transform until after she finds a healer for Tikki.
- In "Representation", Adrien becomes one of the first victims of the Nightormentor virus, causing him to suffer debilitating nightmares. Fearing that he'll hurt someone if he transforms into Cat Noir, he temporarily surrenders the Cat Miraculous... at the same time that Monarch is launching a final assault on the world, meaning that Ladybug must fight Monarch alone.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: The premise of "Filli Vanilli" involves Big Mac not being able to sing on stage due to losing his voice, because he participated in a turkey call contest that wore out his voice just before the big event. As a result, Fluttershy ends up covering for him by using poison joke to deepen her voice and singing behind the stage for him.
- The Owl House:
- In “Agony of a Witch” Amity is forced to sit out a big field trip due to a broken leg.
- In the episode “Eclipse Lake”, Luz is laid up with ‘the common mold’ just as the echo mouse reveals important information about an ingredient for the portal door that would get her home.
- PB&J Otter: "Otter Pox" has Jelly get the titular disease on her birthday, so her siblings have to help her find alternate ways to celebrate.
- Rocko's Modern Life: In "Flu-In-U-Enza", Rocko has tickets for the Wild World of Wacky Wrestling Federation, but the day before the big match, he comes down with the Flu. A trio of regurgitated food known as the Enchanted Upchucks help Rocko get better in time for the match. Unfortunately, by the time Rocko recovers, Spunky comes down with the Flu.
- Rugrats: In "All's Well That Pretends Well", Angelica comes down with a cold just before she and her parents can go to the Cirque du Dummi Bear show. Not wanting anyone to suspect that she's sick, she tries to make the adults think that the babies are the sick ones instead. When she tries to make the babies sneeze by using a feather duster, she gives herself away by accidentally making herself sneeze. Angelica ends up having to stay home while the babies go to the show, but the babies return home a short time later, pretending to be sick so they can stay home with her, feeling bad that she couldn't go to the show. Fortunately, Angelica and the babies get to see the show after all when it's shown on TV.
- The Simpsons:
- In the second half of "Selma's Choice", Homer gets food poisoning from a rotten sandwich left over from a company picnic, rendering him unable to go to the Duff Gardens amusement park. However, he is still determined to go since he already had to postpone the trip to attend the funeral of Great Aunt Gladys in the episode's first half. While Marge stays behind to take care of Homer, Selma volunteers to take Bart and Lisa to Duff Gardens so she can experience what it's like to take care of children.
- In "Sideshow Bob Roberts," Mayor Quimby comes down with the flu right before a big mayoral debate against Sideshow Bob. He ends up too conked out on medication to understand anything the moderator is asking.
- In "Faith Off", Homer attends a football match between Springfield University and Springfield A&M but gets drunk and forgets that he built a float to participate in the halftime show. He dashes out of the stadium and drunkenly drives the float onto the pitch as the players are returning for the 2nd half. Unfortunately, he runs over Springfield U's star player Anton Lubchenko and breaks his leg.
- Thomas & Friends: In "Thomas and the Special Letter", Thomas accidentally damages his buffer beam the night before the engines are to head to the big city, and risks missing the trip. Fortunately, he is repaired in the nick of time just before the others leave.
- Underground Ernie: In "Mr. Rails Never Fails", Ernie catches an awful cold on the day of a surprise party being held for Mr. Rails. Fortunately, Millie covers for him well and even gets him some medicine for his ailment.
- Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!: Subverted in "The Nasty Nose" — Wubbzy's nose gets bigger and turns purple and spotty, and he is diagnosed with "Nasty Nose". He's concerned that he won't be able to go to the pool party, but Walden tells him it isn't contagious so he can still go. He spends the rest of the episode being embarrassed by the nose at the party.
