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{{trope}}
[[File:
Characters are known by their personalities. [[
▲Characters are known by their personalities. [[Its What I Do|They are who they are.]] In a Flowers for Algernon story a character either:
* gains something that is perceived in general as good ([[Super Intelligence|intelligence,]] for example), or
* loses something that is perceived in general as bad (stupidity or bossy behavior, as examples).
However, by the end of the episode, the character is [[Easy Come, Easy Go|back to normal]], sometimes because the character's "normality" is required to solve a problem. At other time as a bow to [[Status Quo Is God]].
Named for the book (expanded from a short story) ''[[
Done badly, this is a [[Family
Done well, this is about accepting who you are and making the most of what you have instead of relying on artificial enhancements.
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See also [[We Want Our Jerk Back]], [[Compressed Abstinence]] and [[Loss of Identity]]. Compare [[Pygmalion Snapback]].
{{examples|Examples:}}▼
== Anime&Manga ==▼
* In [[Kanon]], Makoto suffers from this. It turns out that {{spoiler|Makoto was actually a fox, and she picked up the name because when Yuichi was younger, he took care of the injured fox, and told it that Makoto Sawatari was the name of a girl he liked at the time}}, then had to abandon her when she got better and he had to leave the town he was visiting during summer vacation. When Yuichi comes back to live in the town 7 years later, he runs into her {{spoiler|fox form}} again, and she makes a wish that {{spoiler|allows her to turn into a human girl}}. Unfortunately, the wish has 2 catches to it. The first is that {{spoiler|it'll cause her to lose her memory}}, and the second one is {{spoiler|that it'll eventually take her life away.}} As Yuichi gradually opens up to her, she begins to forget ever {{spoiler|being a human}} and gradually gets sicker. Her strong feelings for him allow her a small [[Hope Spot]], but eventually {{spoiler|[[Tear Jerker|she dies, or rather, fades away]]}}.▼
▲* In ''[[Kanon]]'', Makoto suffers from this. It turns out that {{spoiler|Makoto was actually a fox, and she picked up the name because when Yuichi was younger, he took care of the injured fox, and told it that Makoto Sawatari was the name of a girl he liked at the time}}, then had to abandon her when she got better and he had to leave the town he was visiting during summer vacation. When Yuichi comes back to live in the town 7 years later, he runs into her {{spoiler|fox form}} again, and she makes a wish that {{spoiler|allows her to turn into a human girl}}. Unfortunately, the wish has 2 catches to it. The first is that {{spoiler|it'll cause her to lose her memory}}, and the second one is {{spoiler|that it'll eventually take her life away.}} As Yuichi gradually opens up to her, she begins to forget ever {{spoiler|being a human}} and gradually gets sicker. Her strong feelings for him allow her a small [[Hope Spot]], but eventually {{spoiler|[[Tear Jerker|she dies, or rather, fades away]]}}.
== [[Comic Books]] ==
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** Bonus: Because of his invulnerability, they had to perform the surgery with an industrial strength oil drill.
** Double Bonus: He refused anesthesia for the operation.
* The newspaper comic ''Tank McNamara'' did a riff on this trope. Tank gets zapped by one of [[Mad Scientist|Dr. Tzapp]]'s experimental machines, and it cures his fumblemouth. Before long, Tank starts fancying himself an incisive critic, and the show's ratings plummet because nobody wants to listen to that. Eventually one of the other characters re-zaps him and he turns into his lovable, fumblemouthed self again. ▼
* Another newspaper comic, ''[[Heart of the City]]'', has done this a couple of times, usually with Dean. One arc had him becoming a popular jerk, and a more recent one has him becoming "mature." In most cases, Heart tries to snap him out of it.▼
* A storyline in ''[[The Muppet Show Comic Book]]'' featured Animal taking pills to become calmer. Unfortunately, his drumming ability suffered (because [[All Drummers Are Animals]]), and the Electric Mayhem had to replace him until he stopped taking the tablets.
** This may be based on the [[Real Life]] story of jazz drummer "Witty Ticcy Ray" (see below).
Line 37 ⟶ 32:
* An early storyline in the Archie ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' comics featured Tails eating a fruit that made him into a supergenius. It also made him a stuck up jerk, and he tried to take on Robotnik by himself with his super intelligence. Unfortunately, by the time he reached Robotnik, the fruit's effects wore off and Tails was back to his normal intelligence...meaning the others had to come save him.
** A bit odd, considering in most canon while Robotnik has an IQ of 300, Tails is said to be ''[[Up to Eleven|400]]''.
* The mutant [[Awesomeness By Analysis|Prodigy]] of the ''[[X-Men]]'' can copy the knowledge or skills of anyone nearby but a mental block keeps him from remembering any of the knowledge after they leave. When he asks Emma Frost to remove the mental block, his exponential intellect makes him an uber-successful world leader who solves a lot of the world's problems [[Utopia Justifies the Means|through immoral means]] like [[Powered
** Sabertooth once took one of Wolverine's claws to the brain, which resulted in him becoming peaceful and relaxed. It took a while, but eventually his [[Healing Factor]] repaired the damage, and he was a psychopath again.
*** He was a
* One issue of a Polish comic book series "Tytus, Romek i A'Tomek" dealt with the misguided education of Tytus (who happens to be a talking, civilized chimp). In order to make him less [[Book Dumb]] and more adjusted, [[Mad Scientist|professor T. Alent]] first mindwipes him back to kindergarten, then proceeds to educate Tytus using his crazy inventions, to the point of force-feeding the ape's brain with information. Over the next weeks Tytus gains professor-grade education, receives several academic awards and finally starts burning out. In the end, he breaks into T. Alent's lab, resets his brain again, this time to college level (in his own words, "just a bit above Romek") and resumes his former life.
* One ''[[Justice League of America]]'' arc has a hyper-dimensional force seperate the league and their secret identities into different beings, allowing the heroes to be full-time heroes and the civilian-modes to have normal lives. The only one not happy about this is Plasticman's normal self Eel O'Brian, who doesn't like the idea that he can't be Plasticman again. When talking about this to [[Martian Manhunter]]'s civilian identity John Jones, he even mentions ''[[Flowers for Algernon]]''.
* A ''[[Touhou]]'' doujin titled ''[https://danbooru.donmai.us/pools/13897 Flowers for the Lovestruck Tomboy]'' is about [[The Ditz|Cirno]] getting a boost in intelligence from Remilia Scarlet tampering with her fate out of curiosity. She enjoys the benefits at first and even befriends [[Bookworm|Patchouli]], until her noticeable changes in character cause an internal conflict that splits her personality in two: her regular, ditzy self on one side, and [[Super-Powered Evil Side|a smart, powerful and wicked persona]] on the other side that takes over and becomes a serious threat. Remilia and Patchouli need to team up to take her down and revert the change.
== [[Film]] ==
* ''[[Charly]]'', the aforementioned [[Film of the Book]], is [[Adaptation Displacement|almost as famous]] as the [[Flowers for Algernon
* This trope is the major plot point of a 1990 movie starring [[Robin Williams]], ''[[Awakenings]]'', which has some basis on real life and describes the treatment of catatonic patients with a then-new drug called L-Dopa.
** The movie tells a true story, and is based off
* Disney's ''[
* ''[[Rookie of the Year]]''. A kid gains a Major League caliber pitching arm from an accident. [[Traumatic Toggle|Another accident sees him lose that ability]] in his last game and have to bluff his way through the final inning.
* ''[[The Lawnmower Man]]''. A modern adaptation of the [[
** The Aesop is hardly conclusive here. His life arguably becomes much better, and it isn't until the government starts changing the drugs around that he goes crazy, only to be restored back to his original state at the end of the second movie to save the world.
** Actually, it's hinted that Jobe would have inevitably gone crazy from the medication he was given initially, as it was a milder version of the one that Dr. Angelo had made for the government. When they switched the drugs, it simply sped up the process.
* ''[[Limitless]]'' features a drug that enhances your intelligence, but only temporarily. Long term usage causes addiction, and mixing with alcohol and/or taking too much makes you lose complete control of yourself. If you stop after becoming addicted, your body becames incredibly frail, most people die from it. The protagonist's ex ended up looking like a meth addict. At the end, the protagonist {{spoiler|figures out a way to wean himself off the drug while keeping the effects. Or maybe he was lying about the weaning himself off it part, it's left ambiguous.}}
* In ''[[Ernest P. Worrell|Ernest
== [[Literature]] ==
* ''[[
** One of the alternate trope names, "[[The Algernon Gordon Effect]]", was an in-universe thesis describing this trope.
* In ''Understand'' by Ted Chiang is about a man who has been through an accident that destroyed a lot of his brain cells. He gets a new & experimental "hormone K treatment". Not only does the treatment rejuvenate the killed cells, but also creates far more dendrites (connections between neurons, the "thinking cells" of brain). After getting cured, he is enrolled into further drug trial programs, & gets more shots of "hormone K".
** but also frustrates him in that he needs to create a whole new language just conceptualize his thoughts.
* In ''[[
** This is actually a subversion of the trope though since Tobias wants to stay in his altered form, not his original one.
* In John DeChancie's ''Living With Aliens'', the main character starts out as a below-average teenage boy who befriends a pair of eccentric, stoner, renegade aliens. They offer him "smart pills", which greatly boost his intelligence into high genius levels. Since the story is written in first person, the effects of the intelligence drugs change the prose as the story goes along. Eventually, the pills wear off slightly, but enough of the effect lasts that he's able to maintain membership in [[
* In the ''[[My Teacher Is an Alien]]'' book series, unintelligent bully Duncan Dougal has his brain fried into a more intelligent state in the second book, and later becomes horrified when learning that he may lose this intelligence.
** Although Duncan was never actually stupid, he merely bullied because he grew up in an abusive household. Becoming a genius gave him some perspective, and even though he will return to normal intelligence, Broxholm states that he will be much wiser as a result of seeing his potential.
* ''[[Discworld
** Well, smarter than he was previously, anyway. Detritus was widely acknowledged as thick for a troll, and even with the helmet he's only about average intelligence.
* Subverted in the ''[[
** A different Xanth novel further reveals that ogres aren't particularly stupid at all-their [[Hulk Speak]], low IQ, and lack of conventional manners are entirely based on the prejudices of others. If one lets go of the notion that ogres are stupid slobs who act like they were raised in someone else's stolen barn, one gains the capacity to see them behaving just like anyone else (which means that Xanthian prejudice is strong shit). One ogre gets the Flowers for Algernon treatment at least three times over the course of the book as the viewpoint character repeatedly forgets that ogres aren't as stupid as he's always been taught.
* Also subverted in the [[Isaac Asimov]] story "Lest We Remember". The protagonist, a middle-manager at a pharmaceutical company, receives an experimental treatment which gives him perfect memory; after it becomes inconvenient to his bosses, they try to administer an antidote. He resists and bangs his head in the scuffle, and then manages to convince
* In the second book of the ''[[Prydain Chronicles]]'', the main characters encounter [[The Wise Prince]] Adaon. Adaon has heightened senses, psychic dreams, is a [[Warrior Poet]] with keen insight into people, etc. When Adaon dies, he gives Taran (the teenage main character) a brooch of his, and Taran begins to experience some of the heightened senses and psychic dreams and visions, making him feel for the first time something like [[Heroic Wannabe|the hero he has always wanted to be]]. He does have to give it up though, and for a good reason: it's the only thing a trio of super powerful witches will trade for the [[Artifact of Doom]] that they are on a quest to destroy.
== [[Live-Action TV]] ==
* Averted in ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'''s Season 7 episode "Chrysalis". Doctor Bashir makes a genetically altered person whose intelligence is actually extremely high, but is completely withdrawn into herself, unable to express herself normally. Complications set in that threaten to revert her to her normal state or worse, but Bashir manages to fix the problem. The first draft of the episode's script played it straight, though.▼
▲== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* Played straight in the ''[[Star Trek:
▲* Averted in ''[[Star Trek Deep Space Nine]]'''s Season 7 episode "Chrysalis". Doctor Bashir makes a genetically altered person whose intelligence is actually extremely high, but is completely withdrawn into herself, unable to express herself normally. Complications set in that threaten to revert her to her normal state or worse, but Bashir manages to fix the problem. The first draft of the episode's script played it straight, though.
▲* Played straight in the ''[[Star Trek the Next Generation]]'' episode "The Nth Degree". Reginald Barclay is zapped by an alien probe that raises his IQ to 1200+. After becoming superhumanly good at everything (including putting the moves on Councilor Troi), he reprograms the Enterprise to take the crew to the homeworld of the aliens who built the probe (this was the aliens' intent all along) -- and then his intellect drops back down to normal.
* ''Superboy'': in one storyline, Bizarro is 'cured' of his condition. He eventually needs to be 'uncured' to save Superboy.
* ''[[News Radio]]'', "Flowers for Matthew": Matthew drinks what he thinks is a intelligence-boosting drink and becomes smart through [[Magic Feather|the placebo effect]]. Paradoxically, his intelligence eventually drives him to understand that the drink has no actual chemical effect, at which point the placebo stops working on him and he rapidly returns to his original state.
** In an earlier episode Lisa thinks she's getting dumber, and Dave actually refers to her as Algernon.
* ''[[The Six Million Dollar Man]]''
* Referenced in ''[[Friends]]'' as a joke when they're deciding whether to go back to the [[Standardized Sitcom Housing|(marginally smaller)]] apartment.
{{quote|
* ''[[Monk]]'', "Mr. Monk Takes His Medicine"
* ''[[
* ''[[
** Rimmer also gains his self-confidence and self-respect back (externalised as dashing swordsmen) in the episode "Terrorform", but loses them again almost at once on finding out what his comrades really think of him.
** Rimmer assumes his dashing alter-ego [[The Ace|Ace]] (what a guy!) on a number of occasions, but things are soon [[Status Quo Is God|back to normal]].
*** {{spoiler|Until the last time they cross paths. Then [[Status Quo Is God]] is played by bringing back pre-character-development Rimmer.}}
* In ''[[Scrubs]]'', psychiatrist Molly Clock talks to The Todd, the innuendo-spouting stereotypical jock surgeon, and manages to turn him into a normal, nice man. When asked about it, she responds, "Yeah, but I only talked to him for a few hours. Without continuing therapy, he'll probably be back to normal in a week", [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshading]] the eventual [[Snap Back]] he'd fall victim to.
* In the 2000 ''[[The Invisible Man (TV series)|The Invisible Man]]'' series, the protagonist's partner, Hobbes, is accidentally injected with an intelligence-boosting retrovirus. Unfortunately, the effects ultimately lead to mental overload and catatonia; by the time this is discovered Hobbes doesn't care, but his partner does, and manages to emotionally blackmail him into creating an antidote.
* In an episode of ''[[Malcolm in
* In ''[[
* ''[[Andromeda]]'': In Season 1, in the episode "Harper 2.0", the Andromeda rescues a dying Perseid librarian who is carrying a huge archive of knowledge within his own brain. At the point of death, the Perseid seizes Harper and dumps the archive into his brain, giving him access to a huge store of knowledge. This leaves him with the twin problems of an overheating brain and a ruthless bounty hunter who'd like to separate him from it. {{spoiler|He solves the former problem by downloading the archive for storage in a sun after the bounty hunter experiences a touch of [[You Have Failed Me...]] at the hands of the [[Big Bad]].}}
* This happens several times on [[House MD]], where apparently anything that makes Dr. House happy, more considerate, or not constantly in pain also steals his keen observation and intellect.
** Most examples involving House himself are implied to actually be subversions: Wilson and Cuddy are usually quick to point out that he is looking for an excuse to go back to the way he was because he is scared that this trope will happen. A completely straight example, however, is when he is treating a little girl and indulges the parents' request for a pointless test that will prove she doesn't have a disease he already eliminated. The test does more harm than anticipated.
** The inverse (converse?) occurs in another episode when a brilliant man deliberately takes a combination of drugs that limit his brilliance in order to make himself happier. [[Unfortunate Implications|And making him able to connect, and therefore love, his girlfriend.]]
*** [[Invoked Trope|Invoked, I think.]]
* In ''[[
* ''[[Stargate SG
** Twice.
* Likewise McKay after being zapped by the Ascend-O-Meter in the ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'' episode [[Stargate Atlantis
** And inverted in [[Stargate Atlantis
* In one ''[[Seinfeld]]'' episode George is prevented from having sex for a fixed period of time; the result is that this frees an enormous previously-unused part of his mind (the part that had been obsessed with sex) and his progressively growing intelligence enables him to solve Rubik's Cubes, read scientific journals and learn Portuguese by simply reading through a translation dictionary. Of course, he ends up back where he started (presumably because he had sex with the Portuguese waitress, reversing the effect).
* Inverted with [[Fridge Horror|disturbing implications]] in the third season episode of ''[[Fringe]]'', "The Plateau". At the end of the episode instead of reverting to normal or subpar intelligence, the subject has instead continued to exponentially rise to the point where his thoughts are incomprehensible to ordinary humans and only a machine can begin to understand what he thinks.
* Bailey used a [[Magic Feather|placebo]] to raise London's intelligence in an episode of ''[[The Suite Life On Deck]]''. After she realizes that it's just a placebo, she reverts to her normal self. [[Too Dumb to Live|Then she takes a different one.]]
* In ''[[Desperate Housewives]]'', around the end of season 4, Carlos {{spoiler|goes permanently blind.}} Less than halfway through season five though, {{spoiler|his vision is completely restored.}}
== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==
▲* The newspaper comic ''Tank McNamara'' did a riff on this trope. Tank gets zapped by one of [[Mad Scientist|Dr. Tzapp]]'s experimental machines, and it cures his fumblemouth. Before long, Tank starts fancying himself an incisive critic, and the show's ratings plummet because nobody wants to listen to that. Eventually one of the other characters re-zaps him and he turns into his lovable, fumblemouthed self again.
▲* Another newspaper comic, ''[[Heart of the City]]'', has done this a couple of times, usually with Dean. One arc had him becoming a popular jerk, and a more recent one has him becoming "mature." In most cases, Heart tries to snap him out of it.
==
* [[Next to Normal]] Subverts this twice, in that {{spoiler|neither the medication nor the ECT worked, as they were supposed to, in the first place.}}
== [[Video Games]] ==
* In the [https://web.archive.org/web/20190927131506/http://fromearth.net/LetsPlay/Fallout
** Funnily enough, there is autistic weapons upgrader in New Reno Arms basement who is a reference to and named after ''[[
* {{spoiler|Makoto}} in ''[[Kanon]]'' goes from a [[Tsundere]] [[Genki Girl]] to a dojikko to someone who can barely speak as a consequence of {{spoiler|wishing herself into a human from a kitsune, a 'transient miracle'. [[Downer Ending|And then she dies with an intact intellect no greater than a fox's and without even realizing her 'marriage' to Yuuichi]].}}
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* In ''[[
* [[The Ditz|Fighter]] of ''[[
** Also happens ''twice'' (albeit ''very'' briefly) to [[Axe Crazy|Black Mage]], in both the [http://www.nuklearpower.com/2003/05/31/episode-289-a-change-of-heart/ Marsh Cave] and the [http://www.nuklearpower.com/2005/10/18/episode-613-mirror-master/ Castle of Ordeals]. On the first occasion, he was thinking about his polar opposite, White Mage, and realized that perhaps he should [[Heel Face Turn|change his murderous, spiteful way of life]] and become a better person. This goes down the drain the second his thoughts are interrupted by anger at another of Fighter's stupid statements.
** In the Castle, each member of the team got faced with the manifestation of their worst sin. The whole Castle is a place for the chosen warriors to defeat their own bad side and become the pure and good heroes they are supposed to be. The problem is, Black Mage [[Evil Feels Good|loves being evil]]. So much, in fact, that where all other sins look like monsters, his are represented by ''himself''. He kills the clone and achieves purity... but is revealed to have set up a magic spell beforehand that would channel all the residual evil energy back into himself, [[Status Quo Is God|thus keeping him as he was]].
* After drinking an energy shot, Greg of ''[[Real Life Comics]]'' instantly become [http://www.reallifecomics.com/archive/080826.html superintelligent.] Thankfully, that was resolved by a whack in the head by a frying pan.
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* Mort from ''[[
** Inverted when the penguins lowered their intelligence to Mort's level so they could be [[Disability Immunity|too stupid to feel pain]]. They returned to their smart old selves (well, maybe a bit of an overstatement for Rico) later in the episode.
* ''[[
* ''[[
** More bonus points in that, if I recall correctly, the rat was called (at least by Chuckie) Algernon.
* ''[[
* ''[[
** In "The Cyber House Rules" Leela gets a second eye surgically installed. She goes back to one, after seeing that the person she's been dating (and who gave her the operation) treats a kid with three ears differently from other kids. In this case, it had been established earlier in the episode that having one eye wasn't really a problem since it didn't stop Leela from being successful and accomplished...it just made her look odd (and the second eye was merely cosmetic, she still had no depth perception). Going back down to one eye was actually [[Character Development]] for her to accept that fact.
** In "Parasites Lost" Fry accidentally ingests parasitic worms that make him super-strong and super-intelligent. He gets rid of the worms because he wants Leela to love him for who he really is. This also turned into [[Character Development]] because Fry finally learned how he felt about Leela and spent the rest of the series trying to better himself normally.
** Subverted in "Mars University" where Farnsworth creates an intelligence hat for his experimental monkey, Gunther. Gunther decides he's unhappy being smart, and throws the hat away. Then he realizes he doesn't like not being sapient either. When the hat becomes damaged, he decides he [[Take a Third Option|likes it that way]] as it bestows a moderate amount of intelligence.
{{quote|
'''Farnsworth:''' [[Big No|NOOOOOOOOOOOO!]] }}
** Done with much emotion in the last episode of the original FOX run, "The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings" where Fry enters into a deal with the robot devil in exchange for hands that are good enough to play the holophoner. Hedonism Bot hires Fry to write an opera. In the end, Fry gives the devil back his hands to save Leela from marrying the robot devil.
*** This was an interesting case. The hands only gave him the ability to play; he wrote the opera himself, and kept that talent.
*** Talent? His lyrics lack subtlety. You can't just have your characters announce how they feel. [[That Makes Me Feel Angry]].
* ''[[The Simpsons (
** And again when Bart takes a behavior drug called Focusyn to control his "ADD". Sure enough Bart becomes focused but he becomes paranoid about Major League Baseball spying on the town using satellites ({{spoiler|he's right}}). After stealing a tank he's convinced to stop taking the Focusyn and onto "good old Ritalin".
** And again when Moe gets plastic surgery on his face turning him into a handsome jerk.
*** Actually, he wasn't really a jerk; he only acted like a jerk to the TV studio because he (mistakenly) thought they were going to fire him. This was more a simple case of [[Status Quo Is God]].
*** The reversion to the Status Quo was Lampshaded. Moe's face is crushed by a falling piece of a TV set, which restores him to his previous ugliness.
{{quote|
** Yet again when Marge goes in for some kind of surgery and awakens to find that the doctor has mistakenly given her breast implants.
** And when Lisa got Willie to be a gentleman.
*** Perhaps the only character change that has stuck is Barney's sobriety.
* ''[[
** In the episode "Bubba's Big Brainstorm", Bubba Duck becomes intelligent, civilized, and utterly ruthless and incapable of compassion, something [[Family
** In an earlier episode, Scrooge is racing against a villain to gain the magical Pearl of Wisdom, which grants infinite wisdom for a moment in the morning. Huey, Duey, and Louie are surprised that the islanders seem unconcerned about the prospect of having their pearl stolen by the villain ''or'' Scrooge. The reason soon becomes clear: Scrooge and the villain both get their wisdom moment simultaneously, and in that instant realize that stealing the pearl would be wrong and put it back where they found it. The chief chuckles and says the same thing happens all the time.
** In the episode "Superdoo!" Doofus finds an energy crystal from outer space that gives him superabilities. Through his new powers he becomes the all time junior woodchuck merit badge earning champion, but others dislike him even more than old laughable, clumsy and slow Doofus. He throws away the crystal, gives back his merit badges and later saves the camp without any superpowers, winning respect of others. Everyone is happy to have the old Doofus back, including Doofus himself.
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** In the episode Changing Gears, Megatron steals a circuit card from the Autobot Gears in order to power his solar needle. The effect of removing the circuit card makes Gears all happy and good natured instead of grumpy. The other Autobots are unsuccessful at convincing him to keep the card out when he gets it back at the end of the episode.
* ''[[The Weekenders]]'', "Sense and Sensitivity": Lor starts the episode as a ball hog to the determent of her basketball team and keeping that selfishness even off the court so her friends resolve to make her less so. However they go too far and turn her into the worst form of [[Extreme Doormat]] leading to the legitimate fear she'll do something like make bad passes in a championship game ("she might just give the opponents the ball") so they resolve to turn her back but she does get some development from the event as she actually passes in the championship game.
* ''[[Captain Simian
* Elroy does this to Astro in the 1980s [[Revival]] of ''[[The Jetsons]]''.
* In an episode of ''[[Tiny Toon Adventures]]'', Dizzy Devil is made intelligent and cultured, but finds that none of his friends (or his bevy of attractive girlfriends) like his snobbish new personality. He is eventually restored to normal and is happy.
* ''[[
** They did it ''again'' when Joe regained the ability to walk, then ditched his friends and alienated his wife. The episode ends with his wife trying to shoot him in the spine and repeatedly missing, until he finally takes the gun from her and does it himself to make her stop.
** Also done when Meg got a makeover, she ended up being a big-time pop diva but went back to being normal after Jimmy Fallon had sex with her as part of a ''[[
* In the ''[[
** In "The Many Faces of Squidward", Squidward gets his face broken and gets plastic surgery, becoming [[Even the Guys Want Him|staggeringly handsome]] and wildly popular. He [[Celebrity Is Overrated|desperately seeks to return to his original ugly mug]] after his hordes of fans start getting [[Loony Fan|too close for comfort.]]
** Once Patrick got a sense of smell (via nose), but immediately regretted it after he realizes that he'll have to deal with nasty odors as well as pleasant ones. Subverted that he doesn't actually try to get rid of the nose, but try to make everything smell better, much to the annoyance of his friends. By the end of the episode, Spongebob, Squidward, Sandy, and Mr. Krabs work together to make a stink ball so smelly it would destroy Patrick's nose, and it worked.
* ''[[Chowder]]'' takes this to the next level. In one episode Mung Daal gives him Brain Grub, which makes him super smart. So smart, in fact, that he realizes that he's a cartoon character in a TV show. Thinking that being in the show will keep him as a "scatterbrain," he uses his newfound power to turn the show into an educational program. However the new show doesn't work out; cooking is now boring and the show's audience started crying. Realizing the damage he has done, Chowder yanks his new brain out of his nose and smashes it into bits, effectively deleting the show altogether. [[Snap Back|Of course things go back to normal in the next episode.]]
* Inverted in ''[[
* In the ''[[
* In ''[[The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob]],'' Bob gains super powers briefly. A villain tries to steal them, and they ultimately get {{spoiler|transferred to a potted geranium, which likes them very much and flies away.}}
* ''[[The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron
** Another episode inverted this trope when Jimmy made himself stupid because everyone got tired of his [[Insufferable Genius]] tendencies. However, a meteor threatens to destroy Retroville shortly and they needed Jimmy's smarts to save Retroville. (Which, ironically, happened because of his genius earlier in the episode, not that anyone knew that.)
* In the ''[[Frisky Dingo]]'' episode "Flowers for Nearl," Xander Crews' retarded twin brother is turned into a mastermind through an injection of "brain chemical." When he is fatally shot ([[Lampshade Hanging|because the plot was getting to complicated]],) he reverts to his old speech pattern for his last half-second of life.
* In an episode of ''[[
* In an episode of ''[[
{{quote|
'''Brain''': The same thing we do every night, Pinky.
'''Pinky''': What's that?
'''Brain''': ...I have no idea.
'''Pinky''': Poit.
'''Brain''': Narf. }}
* Played with in ''[[
* In the ''[[Maryoku Yummy]]'' episode "Shika's Wish," Shika wishes that Maryoku would follow the rules for a change, and since they live in a magical land, the wish comes true, turning Maryoku into an absolute stickler for the rules. So much so, in fact, that she takes on Shika's role as Chief Officer of Rules and Regulations and begins making even more restrictive rules than he ever did. Finally, Shika wishes that he never made that wish in the first place, and everything goes back to normal.
* ''[[
* ''[[The Tick (animation)|The Tick]]'': a chimpanzee (named Charlie) becomes superintelligent after having been blasted into space. He slowly reverts over the course of the episode, but still ends up Director of NASA in the end.
* One episode of ''[[Lilo
* Grounder is exposed to this in ''[[
* Season two of ''[[
* In an episode of ''[[
* In an ep of the
* In an episode of ''[[
* In one episode of ''[[Dinosaucers]]'', one of the villains, Quackpot, is accidentally hit by an "Allegiance Reversal" Ray, and briefly becoming friends with the good guys; before the end of the episode, Quackpot witnesses the wear off of the effects on a previous test subject and warns Allo that he will soon become his enemy again.
* ''[[My Little Pony
* In an episode of ''[[
== [[Real Life]] ==
* Neurologist Dr. Oliver Sacks (''The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat'') has one chapter on "Witty Ticcy Ray", a man with severe Tourette's Syndrome who takes Haldol during the week to control his tics, but forgoes his medication on weekends where his condition actually enhances his wild jazz drumming.
** Also, his patients suffering from Sleeping Sickness for decades recovered after he gave them L-Dopa. He writes about them in his book ''[[Awakenings]]'' (later a movie starring [[Robin Williams]]). Unfortunately, as the patients developed resistance to the drug, its effects wore off and they all went back to sleep.
* People whose severe ADHD responds very well to medication can get something like this effect. While it doesn't change their personalities, it can make them so much less impulsive, and make it so much easier to concentrate, that they seem like completely different people while taking medication. But it's not all
* Bipolar disorder, too. Nobody's disputing that going manic and hallucinating that you're the Virgin Mary is a bad thing, but there's also no denying that being manic feels good and makes you very creative, outgoing, and generally more fun to be around (at least before you get paranoid or get the delusion you're invulnerable and kill yourself by accident...) People with bipolar disorder often miss their manias while they're on medication, and stopping medication can get really tempting.
** A lot of people have discovered that, despite the lack of enhanced creativity, they are far more productive while stabilised by medication. Why? Turtle beats the hare; being able to steadily work on things all the time gets more done than occasional hyperactive spurts (which get gradually more incoherent) followed by long periods of depression. Which makes the disorder an example of the trope done well.
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