History Main / HappyBirthdayToYou

* ''Series/{{Frasier}}'': In "Fraiser Gotta Have It", Martin and Daphne sing the song when celebrating Eddie the dog's birthday, much to Frasier's annoyance.

* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheBerenstainBears'' entitled "Too Much Birthday" (based on the book of the same name) has everyone sing to the tune of "London Bridge":

* ''Manga/AssassinationClassroom'': Class 3-E celebrate the anniversary of the moon explosion as Koro-sensei's birthday, so they get him a cake and sing Happy Birthday to him. Terasaka refuses to join in, claiming it to be "some bullshit", but is pinched into singing along by class representative Kataoka. They also sing the song in the English dub, which was released soon after the Happy Birthday song was deemed in the public domain, but that doesn't stop Terasaka from lampshading the trope:

That all changed in TheNewTens. In 2013, a lawsuit was filed against Warner/Chappell Music by Jennifer Nelson, whose production company, Good Morning to You Productions, was filming a documentary about the song and its history. To secure the rights to the song and ensure the documentary would be made, Nelson had to pay $1500, which she claimed was unreasonable. During pretrial hearings in 2015 –- one day before a scheduled ruling, in fact –- Nelson and her lawyers discovered evidence that WMG's copyright claim was likely invalid thanks to the discovery of documents "[[BlatantLies mistakenly held from them]]" by WMG, including a book published in 1922 titled ''The Everyday Song Book''. That book contained the lyrics to "Happy Birthday" with a disclaimer that they had been used with "special permission through courtesy of the Clayton F Summy Co."[[note]] (that's the company whose IP Warner Music Group ended up with in 1988)[[/note]] …but that's not a valid copyright notice, which was required at the time of publishing. [[note]] ''Film/NightOfTheLivingDead1968'' had a similar issue; it was distributed to cinemas without a copyright notice, thus accidentally and automatically releasing it (and by extension pretty much all of the core zombie/undead mythos) into the public domain. That loophole and several others were closed in the 1976 Copyright Act, but the law isn't retroactive (as that would make it an ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ex_post_facto_law ex post facto]]'' law -- i.e., a law potentially criminalising conduct that was legal before the law's passage, such as making copies of and/or distributing the "Happy Birthday" lyrics or prints of ''Night of the Living Dead'' -- which are specifically prohibited by the United States Constitution). Plus, when it comes to lawsuits over old intellectual properties, American judges look at what the law ''used'' to be during the time period in question, rather than what it is now.[[/note]]

* Infamously used in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamTheWitchFromMercury'', where the protagonist Suletta Mercury sings the song to Elan Ceres in an effort to bond with him. [[spoiler:He also sings the song as he's about to be vaporized and replaced.]]
* ''Anime/LupinIIIPartII'': In the episode "Black Panther", Lupin, Jigen and Goemon celebrate Fujiko's birthday. Initial versions had them sing the traditional song, but it was rerecorded with an original melody later on. By this time, Lupin's original voice actor, Yasuo Yamada, had died, and so [[TheOtherDarrin Kanichi Kurita]] sings the new tune. The English dub also uses an original melody.

** Happy birthday Squidward! [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VqRdpltPB8 Pin the tail on the seahorse!]]
** Yo-ho, Pearl's a whale, and it's her birthday!
** Three cheers on your birthday, [=SpongeBob=]! Three cheers for you!
** Happy Birthday dear old Grandma, Grandma, Grandma! The best Grandma in the world, Grandma, Grandma!
** Squirrelly birthday, dear Sandy, squirrelly birthday to you!

** A [[SuckECheeses Wall E. Weasel]] establishment has a cheap animatronic animal band singing, "You're the birthday/You're the birthday/You're the birthday/Boy or girl!"
** In another episode, a group of waiters sing "Happy First 'A'", to Bart, when he celebrated that.
** A classic early episode had a guy who claimed to be Music/MichaelJackson serenade Lisa with an original song. "Lisa, it's your birthday...happy birthday, Lisa!"[[note]]Actually written by Jackson, but credited to "W.A. Mozart" on the ''Songs in the Key of Springfield'' CD.[[/note]] Earlier in the same episode Lisa sang a forlorn "Happy Birthday to Me" to herself, since she was the only one in the family who remembered her birthday.
** The famous/infamous "Happy Birthday" song Music/TheRamones played to Mr. Burns on his birthday. Just 15 seconds, and just the "Happy Birthday to YOU!" chorus, and they left the poor old man trembling and angry.

** In the first season episode where Homer buys Marge a bowling ball after [[ForgottenBirthday forgetting her birthday]], they go to a restaurant with singing waiters, who do sing the actual song "Happy Birthday to You."
** In the season 5 episode "Rosebud," Burns and Smithers are discussing the preparations for Burns' upcoming birthday:
--->'''Smithers:''' On another topic, the preparations for your birthday have begun.\\

** The writers of simply wrote a new birthday song for one episode, which has the same melody as "My Darling Clementine".

* An Internet example: ''Series/TheFundayPawpetShow'' have their own birthday song (to the tune of "Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay"):

* An Internet example: The ''Series/FundayPawpetShow'' have their own birthday song (to the tune of "Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay"):

* In ''VideoGame/AnimalCrossingNewLeaf'', on your birthday or the Saturday just before it, you can request "K.K. Birthday", a song that sounds ''kinda like'' Happy Birthday, but is distinct enough to evade copyright troubles. This despite the fact that K.K. [[SingingSimlish only sings in Simlish]]. K.K continues playing this song in ''VideoGame/AnimalCrossingNewHorizons'', even though that game was made after the copyright expired.

* The original DS version of ''VideoGame/GhostTrick'' plays the first few notes of the song as part of a celebratory Rube Goldberg device, since the melody isn't under copyright. Regardless, the later [=iOS=] port adjusted the last couple notes so that it was no longer a match.

* The original DS version of ''VideoGame/GhostTrick'' plays the first few notes of the song as part of a celebratory Rube Goldberg device, since the melody isn't under copyright. Regardless, the later [=iOS=] port adjusted the last couple notes so that it was no longer a match.
* In the Japanese, Korean and Chinese versions of the ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' games from ''VideoGame/PokemonXAndY'' onward, the Happy Birthday song plays in the background during the first time the player enters a Pokémon Center on their birthday, and a celesta version of the usual Pokémon Center music plays during subsequent visits on that day. However, in other languages, the aforementioned Pokémon Center theme is played on all visits.
* In ''VideoGame/TomodachiLife'', when a Mii's birthday rolls around, other Miis will sing this song to them, but the lyrics are replaced with "La, la, la" (except the line "Dear [Mii's name]"). Averted in the original ''Tomodachi Collection'' where the song is verbally sung out.