History Main / HappyBirthdayToYou

* ''Series/InterviewWithTheVampire2022'': In the fourth episode, Lestat de Lioncourt and Louis de Pointe du Lac sing "Happy Birthday" to their vampire daughter Claudia on her 17th birthday, although the audience only hears the tail end of the song.

* The ''Webcomic/{{xkcd}}'' strip "[[https://xkcd.com/1581/ Birthday]]" has the lyrics to the Happy Birthday song, in celebration of both the comic's 10th anniversary and the court ruling Warner/Chappell's claim to the song invalid a day prior. In the strip's AltText, the author mentions that he should apologize to his family and friends, along with the Chuck E. Cheese's staff, for calling the cops on them every time they sing the song.

** He got [[Music/{{Rush}} Geddy Lee]] in on the project too.

* The Partnership for a Drug Free America PSA "Faces" from the 1980s used a creepy version of the tune but different lyrics. ("How old are you now? La da dee da da dee...")

* ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'': The episode "Mommy Can You Hear Me" has the kids build a stratospheric ionizer which will send a happy birthday message to a Russian astronaut far out in space. They intended to sing this, but right before they can, Candace's Mindy Mimic doll gets stuck to the mic and delivers the recorded "turn around" message instead.

* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' gets away with only using the last line in "Weirdmageddon 3: Take Back The Falls".

[[/folder]]

--->'''Mr. Burns:''' Have Music/TheRollingStones killed...\\

* Music/ElioELeStorieTese actually had the song "Al mercato di Bonn" removed from one of their albums, since in it they imagined that Music/LudwigVanBeethoven composed it way before its time, and sung it with no modifications to the melody or lyrics.

* In ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'' episode "Birthday Bash" everyone is about to sing the song. However, they are quickly stopped by Bubbles shouting "No singing!", because the Girls are in a hurry to get to opening their presents.

* In ''Literature/DiaryOfAWimpyKidOldSchool'', the song that Rodrick and the other employees of the Old-Timey Ice Cream Parlour sing on customers' birthdays goes "It's your birthday, and we're here to say / We hope you day is dandy in an old-fashioned way / And if you're feelin' hungry, you're at the perfect place / Now just blow out that candle, so you can stuff yer face!"

* In ''Literature/DiaryOfAWimpyKidOldSchool'', the song that Rodrick and the other employees of the Old-Timey Ice Cream Parlour sing on customers' birthdays goes "It's your birthday, and we're here to say / We hope you day is dandy in an old-fashioned way / And if you're feelin' hungry, you're at the perfect place / Now just blow out that candle, soyou can stuff yer face!"

* ''Manga/AzumangaDaioh'': After Yukari's class offers her a belated birthday present, she triumphantly belts out a GratuitousEnglish rendition of "Happy Birthday To You". The English manga was naturally able to keep it, but the English dub of the anime changed it to a completely different melody.

* In ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'', Elliot [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2013-02-07 suggests singing]] "a Happy Birthday song" to Susan; subtly referencing this trope. In TheRant, Shive references it directly mentioning if the scene comes to pass he will "come up with [his] own horrible lyrics".
* In ''Webcomic/{{Bobbins}}'', Amy's coworkers singing [[http://www.scarygoround.com/index.php?date=20160502 a mangled version]] of the song's lyrics on her 18th birthday may be a nod to this trope.

Time will tell what effect this has on public performances of the song, though at least one thing is finally certain -- producers, filmmakers, average citizens posting birthday parties on Website/YouTube, and [[ItMakesSenseInContext people washing their hands while singing to this song twice as a recommended way to kill germs]] can now sing the familiar refrain without having to worry about Warner Music Group [[ScrewedByTheLawyers tackling them to the ground out of nowhere and slapping a $10,000 fine on them]].

** A classic early episode had a guy who claimed to be Music/MichaelJackson serenade Lisa to the tune of "Smooth Criminal". "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.

It's the most-recognized song in the English language (and quite possibly the entire world), but before September 22, 2015, the lyrics to "Happy Birthday to You" ''weren't'' in the public domain in most countries[[note]] (Canada and New Zealand were major exceptions; the "Happy Birthday" copyright expired in Canada in 1985 and NZ in 1997.)[[/note]]. Its copyright in the United States and Continental Europe was held by Warner/Chappell Music, a division of Creator/WarnerMusicGroup, which had acquired it in 1988 from its takeover of the original holder. [[note]] It's worth mentioning that the melody itself comes from "Good Morning to All", a much older song which everyone agrees has been in the public domain for close to a century.[[/note]] WMG aggressively enforced the copyright, too, which netted them around $2 million per year in royalty fees. As a result, in media prior to 2016, it was rare to hear the actual "Happy Birthday" song.

* The Partnership for a Drug Free America PSA "Faces" from the 1980s used a creepy version of the tune but different lyrics ("How old are you now? La da dee da da dee...").

* When it's Sophie's birthday on ''Series/PeepShow'', her family [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKKGtp9S9vY&hd=1 sings]] the Altered Images song "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7jVWgdzQ2E Happy Birthday]]", to the utter bemusement of Mark and Jez. Maybe they thought if they were going to pay royalties for a birthday song, they [[RuleOfFunny may as well wring some comedy]] out of it...

* In ''Podcast/HowDidThisGetMade?'' the team is speculating about an imagined version of ''Film/FromJustinToKelly'' which used entirely public domain songs, singing various {{Standard Snippet}}s to each other in overwrought ''Series/AmericanIdol''-style oversinging – "oooOOooh, country 'tiiIIIIiis of theeee…". June-Diane then sings the first line of "Happy Birthday", prompting both Paul and Jason to yell at her for bankrupting the show.

** One episode had Pinkie Pie sing a variation to the Cake's newborn twins ("Happy happy Birthday to you and you today...") but she gets cut off by the nurse before getting any further ([[CloudCuckooLander singing in a maternity ward and all]]). She's later able to finish it, albeit as "Happy Monthiversary," which celebrates the twins'… well, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin one-month anniversary of their birth]]. Witness it [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y258SAHw1ZU here.]]

* Music/{{Negativland}} is well known for fighting the U.S. Copyright Laws in their recordings and live shows. [[https://pitchfork.com/news/64974-negativlands-richard-lyons-dead-at-57/ Founding member Richard Lyons died]] of melanoma on his own birthday, April 19, 2016; one of his last conscious acts was [[https://soundcloud.com/bart-conway/negativland-friends-happy-birthday-to-richard to sing the song with family, friends and hospice workers]]. It had been released from copyright a few months before.

Keep in mind that the majority of these examples are either in the U.S. pre-2015 or in other countries where the U.S. ruling has no effect.

It's the most-recognized song in the English language (and quite possibly the entire world), but before September 22, 2015, the lyrics to "Happy Birthday to You" ''weren't'' in the public domain in most countries[[note]] (Canada and New Zealand were major exceptions; the "Happy Birthday" copyright expired in Canada in 1985 and NZ in 1997.)[[/note]]. Its copyright in the United States and Continental Europe was held by Warner/Chappell Music, a division of Creator/WarnerMusicGroup, which had acquired it in 1988 from its takeover of the original holder. [[note]] It's worth mentioning that the melody itself comes from "Good Morning to All", a much older song which everyone agrees has been in the public domain for close to a century.[[/note]] WMG aggressively enforced the copyright, too, which netted them around $2 million per year in royalty fees. As a result, in media prior to that point, it was rare to hear the actual "Happy Birthday" song.

To avoid fees and/or lawsuits, productions typically either substitute a public domain folk song -- "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow" is one example (British shows may use "A Fine Old English Gentleman" instead) -- or they just make up their own lyrics which may or may not use the actual melody. The copyright specifically applied to the combination of the lyrics and the melody; speaking or printing out the lyrics was fine, and so was using the melody if it had different lyrics or was instrumental. This is all in stark contrast to the real world, where singing anything ''other'' than "Happy Birthday To You" is almost unheard of… except when the singers were the waitstaff of certain chain restaurants, for exactly the same reason as media.

It's the most-recognized song in the English language (and quite possibly the entire world), but before September 22, 2015, the lyrics to "Happy Birthday to You" ''weren't'' in the public domain in most countries[[note]] (Canada and New Zealand were major exceptions; the "Happy Birthday" copyright expired in Canada in 1985 and NZ in 1997.)[[/note]]. Its copyright in the United States and Continental Europe was held by Warner/Chappell Music, a division of Creator/WarnerMusicGroup, which had acquired it in 1988 from its takeover of the original holder. [[note]] It's worth mentioning that the melody itself comes from "Good Morning to All", a much older song which everyone agrees has been in the public domain for close to a century.[[/note]] WMG aggressively enforced the copyright, too, which netted them around $2 million per year in royalty fees. As a result, when a birthday is being celebrated on television, it's fairly rare for those involved to actually sing "Happy Birthday to You".

To avoid fees and/or lawsuits, productions typically either substitute a public domain folk song -- "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow" is one example (British shows may use "A Fine Old English Gentleman" instead), or they just make up their own lyrics which may or may not use the actual melody. This is all in stark contrast to the real world, where singing anything ''other'' than "Happy Birthday To You" is almost unheard of… except when the singers were the waitstaff of certain chain restaurants, for exactly the same reason as media.

* In one WesternAnimation/DaffyDuck cartoon, he's a telegram messenger looking to deliver a birthday greeting for someone named Chloe (the cartoon "The Impatient Patient"). When he finds Chloe, a monstrous hulk who was actually Dr. Jerkyl in disguise, Daffy reads the telegram out loud (spoken, not sung):