Flowers for Algernon Syndrome: Difference between revisions

* ''[[The Six Million Dollar Man]]'' -- Jaime Sommers' first appearance in the show gave her bionics, then apparently ended with her death because her body rejected them. (Of course, she was revived and re-empowered when the network discovered she'd make a good spinoff, but that was outside of the realm of the original episode's plot.)

* Referenced in ''[[Friends]]'' as a joke when they're deciding whether to go back to the [[Standardized Sitcom Housing|(marginally smaller)]] apartment.

* ''[[Monk]]'', "Mr. Monk Takes His Medicine" -- Adrian Monk begins taking medication to combat his Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. It works; however, he not only loses his [[Disability Superpower|amazing detecting abilities]], but in a twist, he also turns into an insufferable egotistical jerk who talks like a '50s hipster and wants to be referred to as "[[Spell My Name with a "The"|The Monk]]." Naturally, by the end of the episode, everyone is begging him to stop taking the medicine.

* ''[[Angel]]'' -- Charles Gunn undergoes a magical procedure to give him encyclopedic legal knowledge, but after half a season it begins to degrade. This is referred to in the episode as 'acute "Flowers for Algernon" syndrome.' In this case, he is able to regain the knowledge through some [[Deal with the Devil|shady dealings,]] but comes to regret it.

** 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.

'''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.

*** 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.

** 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.

* In an episode of ''[[South Park]]'', Mr. Garrison gets a rhinoplasty having David Hasselhoff's face. He becomes a male model and pursue women. Until women are chasing him and wants his old face back.

* In an episode of ''[[Pinky and The Brain]]'', The Brain makes Pinky smart with a machine so he would stop making the world domination plans fail. Pinky proceeds to appoint flaws in all of the upcoming plans, angering his friend. This causes Pinky to get sad at his intelligence, and Brain to make calculations proving the duo only works with one of the two being dumb. Brain then uses the machine to make himself a dimwit... and shortly later Pinky does the same.

'''Brain''': Narf. }}

* Played with in ''[[Daria]]'', in the episode "Quinn the Brain", when Quinn gets an A on her English essay. Quinn's ''actual'' intelligence doesn't increase, but she gets treated like it has and after she manages to make being a "brain" a fad, she embraces an identity as an intellectual. Daria ends up reverting her back after both the Fashion Club and Quinn's trio of admirers beg her to bring the "old Quinn" back. This consists entirely of Daria dressing like Quinn, getting the guys to show up at their house as her "dates" and waiting three seconds for Quinn to revert to her old self.