All The Tropes

Playing Sick: Difference between revisions

Page Discussion

Playing Sick (view source)

Revision as of 05:59, 8 April 2014

92 bytes removed ,  10 years ago
m
Mass update links
VisualWikitext
(→‎Real Life: clean up)
m (Mass update links)
Line 2:
Sometimes in a fictional story, a character will pretend to be sick (otherwise known as malingering). Most often, this is to avoid something unpleasant at school or work, such as a test, visit from management, or similar inconvenience. Some just do it to get a day off. This is often accompanied by completely overblown "symptoms", often exaggerated further by the character holding a thermometer up to a light bulb to fake a temperature.
 
In comedy, [[Can't Get Away Withwith Nuthin'|this almost never works]], with the ruse either being readily discovered or backfiring on the character. A backfire might be whatever they were trying to avoid being moved to a day not covered by their ploy; it's also common for the character to end up missing out on something fun.
 
See [[Munchausen Syndrome]] for the more serious, even pathological version.
Line 25:
 
== Films ==
* A deleted chapter from ''[[Charlie and Thethe Chocolate Factory]]'' features Mr. Wonka showing the children an invention called Spotty Powder which you put over your cereal in the morning like sugar. You then eat the sugar and get spots on your face, so that when your mother sees you across the table, she'll think you're ill and send you to bed. Perfect for the day you have exams (as Charlie declares).
* This is, of course, the entire impetus to the plot of ''[[Ferris BuellersBueller's Day Off]]''...
* The film ''A Gift for Heidi'' has her friend Clara faking she still has her stomach ache from yesterday (after eating too much ice cream). However, she's doing it so that her chaperone has someone he can care for, for once in his life.
* In the movie ''ET: The Extra Terrestrial'' Elliott very convincingly pretends to be sick (even warming the thermometer using a light bulb) so he can be alone with his new alien friend.
Line 34:
 
== Literature ==
* In [[Arthur Conan Doyle (Creator)|Arthur Conan Doyle]]'s ''The Adventure of the Dying Detective'', Dr. Watson discovers that Sherlock Holmes is bedridden with an exotic foreign disease. {{spoiler|Holmes is faking it in order to tease a confession out of the evil genius who ''tried'' to infect him with said exotic foreign disease. He made a very thorough job of it, though: he starved himself for three days.}}
* In [[Diane Duane]]'s ''[[Young Wizards|Deep Wizardry]]'', Dairine does this for her ''sister's'' benefit.
* One story from the ''[[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]] 2007 Storybook'' has a boy putting his head next to a radiator to fake that he has a fever so that he can get sent to bed early and later sneak out to help the Doctor.
* From ''[[Harry Potter (Franchise)/Harry Potter and The Order of The Phoenix|Harry Potter]]'': Fred and George Weasley's "Skiving Snackboxes". One end of the candy will make you graphically ill (nausea/vomiting, nosebleeds, rashes, etc.); upon being excused from your class, you eat the other half, which restores you to perfect health.
* The [[Shel Silverstein]] poem "Sick" consists of Peggy Ann McKay listing symptoms of her illness -- from a sliver to a 108 degree fever to a shrunken brain -- keeping her from going to school {{spoiler|until she realizes it's Saturday, when she miraculously recovers}}.
Line 55:
* In one episode of ''[[The Golden Girls]]'', Sophia really is injured and must stay in a wheelchair, so Dorothy hires a nurse to look after her mother. The nurse takes excellent care of Sophia but makes life miserable for the other three housemates, who want to fire her. Sophia fakes being injured long after she recovers in order to go on being pampered by the nurse, noting that the way she treats the other three characters is 'just a bonus'.
* [[ROY]] does this in one episode when he finds all of his friends have come down with an illness, but he can't because he is a cartoon (although he does get ill later in the episode). He then discovers his sister Becky isn't ill either and uses that as blackmail against her.
* In an episode of ''[[Lizzie McguireMcGuire]]'', Matt tries to pull this, but his mom sees through the act from the start. Rather than send him off to school anyway, she cheerfully proceeds to make Matt miserable by feeding him borscht and sweating out his "fever" by swaddling him in a wool blanket with the heater on.
* In ''[[Unnatural History]]'', [[The Hero|Henry]] does this to get out of the school when {{spoiler|it is under lockdown due to a mysterious disease to get the cure from the medical repository}}.
* DJ did this in an early episode of ''[[Full House]]'' in an attempt to get Stacy Q's autograph. It almost worked, but Joey and baby sister Michelle just ''happened'' to show up at the mall as DJ and Kimmy were leaving. Of course, Michelle discovered them and led Joey over, thus blowing DJ's cover and embarrassing her at the same time.
Line 72:
* In the ''[[Modern Family]]'' episode "Virgin Territory", Cameron fakes an injury while at brunch in the Dunphys' house so, when everyone's out, he can search it for a Tupperware bowl Claire insists she's returned to him.
* Junior in [[The Sopranos]] : He feigns dementia to avoid criminal prosecution. Invoked and then twisted as Junior is really going senile.
* In an episode of ''[[3rd Rock Fromfrom the Sun]]'', the aliens get the idea of calling in sick. As usual, they think they are total geniuses and that no human has ever thought of this:
{{quote| '''Sally''': Taking a sick day when you're not really sick? It sounds like a crime to me.<br />
'''Dick''': It's not a crime... [[What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?|it's the crime of the century]]! }}
Line 78:
 
== Music ==
* Weird Al did a song about this, titled ''[[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin|Calling in Sick]]''.
{{quote| I think I'll call my boss and I'm<br />
gonna hack and cough and wheeze<br />
Line 96:
== Western Animation ==
* ''[[The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron]]'': Jimmy Neutron once gave his friends special patches that mimicked illness, allowing them to skip school. Unfortunately, the patches got absorbed and made them really sick, forcing Jimmy to pull a [[Fantastic Voyage]] to develop a cure (hence the episode's title, "Journey to the Center of Carl").
* In ''[[Arthur (Animationanimation)|Arthur]]'s Chicken Pox'', younger sister D.W. pretends to have come down with the titular sickness. It works until the spots come off in the bath.
** Another episode has D.W. faking she has lost her voice so that everyone spoils her. Arthur overhears her talking and has to get help from his friends to make her come with the truth.
* One ''[[Care Bears]]'' cartoon has two characters drawing spots onto themselves to fake that they have spots. However, when they wash the spots off and declare they're better, the parents declare that the illness is getting worse!
* The ''[[Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy]]'' episode "Cry Ed", although Eddy is pretending to be severely injured instead of sick, and trying to get attention and pity from the other kids rather than out of school.
* In an episode of ''[[The Emperor's New School (Animation)|The Emperors New School]]'', Kuzco did it after learning that the Royal Treasury would provide funds to look after him (in luxury) if he was ill
* One episode of ''The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack'' has Flapjack pretending to be struck dumb by a curse so that Captain K'nuckles will take him to a carnival.
** And another has K'nuckles pretending to be dead so Flapjack will leave him alone.
* The ''[[My Little Pony|My Little Pony Tales]]'' episode "Too Sick to Notice".
** And attempted in the ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Animation)|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'' episode "Family Appreciation Day" by Apple Bloom. {{spoiler|It doesn't work. Granny Smith, having raised first her own children as well as Apple Bloom's older siblings before her, sees right through it.}}
** Fluttershy does it in "Hurricane Fluttershy" to avoid tornado duty, painting spots on her face and making rather obviously fake sneezes. Rainbow Dash isn't fooled, dumping water on her and washing away the spots.
* ''[[Pepper Ann]]'' had an episode where she fakes she has a fever (by putting the thermometer in a cup of coffee) so that she can have a day off school.
Line 112:
** In another episode, Bart eats a jagged O from a box of Krusty-Os and develops agonizing stomach pains. No one believes him except Lisa, though he is eventually taken to the hospital.
* In one episode of ''[[Strawberry Shortcake]]'', Strawberry finds a fairy with a hurt wing and offers to take care of her until her wing heals. The fairy takes advantage of Strawberry's hospitality and all the attention her friends dote on her, pretending she can't fly even after her wing has healed.
* ''[[Tom and Jerry (Animation)|Tom and Jerry]]'' did a variation in which Jerry painted spots on Tom to [[Induced Hypochondria|make him believe he had measles]]. Tom eventually finds out and goes after Jerry, only to find that now Jerry had the measles for real.
* ''[[Code Lyoko]]'' does this in countless episodes. "Mrs. Hertz? I don't feel good, I have to go to the infirmary." "Me too!" "And I'll escort them!" Cue running off to Lyoko. With three or four students doing this all at the same time, and it's the same ones every time, you wonder why the teachers don't see through it.
** The teachers and principal start getting fed up with this in the last Season and aren't fooled as often, so it becomes harder for the heroes to pretend being sick.
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Special:MobileDiff/884512"