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{{trope}}
[[File:bubble-boy-
Someone living in a
The usual reason is because the '''Bubble Boy''' or Girl possesses a weak immune system or other serious illness and simply can not venture out into the world without protection. Any attempt to do so would prove nearly or completely fatal. So obviously this trope is almost always played for comedy. Either it will set up a situation where characters are expected to treat someone like a woobie when they're all [[Jerkass]], or they'll be in a mobile hamster ball that's used for physical humor. If the bubble is broken, expect the character to be fine. Serious depictions are rarer, but can be good.
Frequently [[The Woobie]] as a result.
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== [[Film]] ==
* The movie ''Bubble Boy'', which supplies the page image. {{spoiler|It turned out his immune system recovered several years prior and he no longer ''needed'' the bubble - [[My Beloved Smother|it was just a way for his mother to control his life]].}}
* The more obscure and insane ''[
* ''[[The Boy in
== Literature ==
* Royd Eris, the captain of the ship in the [[
* Inverted in one of the stories from Palahnuik's ''Haunted'', in which young carriers of lethal viruses are quarantined at a secret government facility so their ailments won't overwhelm ''everybody else's'' immune systems. So far as the isolated kids' lives are concerned, it's the same trope: sterile housing, airtight suits to wear outdoors, and no physical contact with other humans {{spoiler|unless another kid with the same strain shows up}}.
* The Hitek in ''Man After Man'', due to being crippled by an accumulation of genetic flaws, must spend their lives sealed in cybernetic exoskeletons.
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== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* The ''[[Seinfeld]]'' episode "Bubble Boy." The Bubble Boy was a bit of a [[Jerkass]] though.
* The made-for-TV movie ''The Boy in the Plastic Bubble'', starring [[John Travolta
* The ''[[My Name Is Earl]]'' episode "Joy in a Bubble."
* On ''[[Northern Exposure]]'' Anthony Edwards played a man who had developed severe allergies to artificial materials (basically, to US civilization). His whole house was encased in a bubble. At one point he borrowed a space suit from Maurice (a former astronaut) to go among the townsfolk.
* Though not quite a bubble, a teenage girl on ''[[House (TV series)|House]]'' who'd just undergone a heart transplant was confined to her sterile bedroom by her germ-paranoid mother.
== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==
* ''[[Pearls Before Swine]]'': Pig's sister Farina lives in a plastic bubble, though not because of her immune system but because she's a germaphobe. Shockingly, though, she's actually let other suitors like ''[[Dilbert]]'' and ''[[Hagar the Horrible
== [[Video Games]] ==
* The entire quarian race in ''[[Mass Effect]]''. Tali, your Quarian teammate, is much more of a [[The Woobie|woobie]] than the rest of her people, though.
* A girl in ''[[Growlanser]] III'', though it's more of a clean room than a bubble. One of the game's potential love interests can cure her, after which she can become a love interest herself.
== [[Web Animation]] ==
* This happens in an episode of ''[[Weebl and Bob]]'' where a boy in a bubble (named "Bubble Boy") asks if Weebl's clean and if he can use his toilet. However he refuses to come out for fear of "the germs" (that's why he's in the bubble in the first place) and starts urinating in his bubble, and drowns in his own wee.
==
* Guardian Angel's [[Barrier Warrior]] powers in ''[[
== [[Western Animation]] ==
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* In the ''[[Family Guy]]'' episode "The Father, the Son, and the Holy Fonz", Stewie ends up one of these after a botched baptism makes him sick.
* Ned was stuck in a bubble in ''[[Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide]]''.
* ''[[My Gym
* ''[[
* The main characters of ''[[Recess]]'' ended up in one of these when they faked the symptoms of a severe illness (they were aiming for a more minor one but [[The Smart Guy|Gretchen]] messed up).
* ''[[The Simpsons]]'' episode "Little Girl in the Big Ten" had Bart in a bubble to prevent others from getting sick after being infected with the contagious "Panda Virus" from being bitten by a Chinese mosquito that was in a Krusty Burger toy.
* Boog in ''[[Fanboy and Chum Chum]]'' lived in a plastic bubble during his childhood because he had an air allergy.
* ''[[
* Carl in [[Jimmy Neutron]] becomes a Bubble Boy when a disease is going around town.
* On ''[[
* Cameron from ''[[Total Drama Island|Total Drama: Revenge of the Island]]'', who admits to having an [[My Beloved Smother|overprotective mom]] and has never really done much outside of the bubble before auditioning for the show at age 16. He doesn't seem to mind the bubble, though, and even [[I Want My Mommy|cries out for it]] in one of the challenges. He struggles through the show so that that prize money can go towards more oxygen to pump into the bubble, but by the end, he decides that since he left the show in one piece, he won't need it.
== [[Real Life]] ==
* [[wikipedia:David Vetter|David Vetter]] was the inspiration for ''[[The Boy in
* [[wikipedia:Ted DeVita|Ted DeVita]] was the other person used as an inspiration for ''[[The Boy in
* In some places you can pay to be encapsulated in a giant hamster-ball-style bubble and run along plains for a set amount of time. This is a sport called Zorbing.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Characters As Device]]
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