History Main / SurpriseParty

* A "Good Idea, Bad Idea" segment from ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'' features the bad idea of throwing a surprise party for your grandfather... who dies from shock.

* In "Surprise Quints" from the PBS animated ''Literature/CuriousGeorge'' series, a surprise party is held for the Quints (who [[MeaningfulName are quintuplets]]) in their own home, and George has to keep them distracted from going there until it's ready.

* ''Mickey's Surprise Party'', a MickeyMouse short, involves Mickey holding one for Minnie.

* ''Literature/RoysBedoys'': In “Don’t Spoil Surprises, Roys Bedoys!”, Wen’s friends plan to throw her a surprise party for her birthday, but Roys spoils the surprise when she pressures him to tell the secret. She tries to feign surprise, but is too bad of an actress, so Roys has to admit he spoiled the surprise.

* In ''VideoGame/IWasATeenageExocolonist'', your friends organize a surprise party for you for your 18th birthday, with Marz as the host. You play along with the surprise because you're tired from the siege last Glow Season, but the Helios youth crash the party because they think they can sit "wherever [they] want" at the lounge, to Cal's frustration.

* Just before the final level of ''VideoGame/WolfensteinIITheNewColossus'', a mission starts where B.J. goes to walk into the planning room of the submarine, only to have no one answer his calls, with all the lights out. B.J. rushes in, only to be hit with a surprise party for his work. The entire crew has one big, drunken revelry before the next morning.

* [[HilariousInHindsight Funny enough]], preceding the ''Franklin'' game was ''VideoGame/SpongeBobSquarePantsSuperSponge'', where [=SpongeBob=] explores the world to buy party favors and collect things for Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy so that he can get an autograph from them to give as a birthday gift to his best friend, Patrick, as well as throwing a surprise party for him.
* A special cutscene plays in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain'' if the player returns to Mother Base on their birthday: when Snake arrives, he finds the group of soldiers who usually salute him upon his return missing. He then hears loud pops, thinking it's gunfire and draws his sidearm, only to realize it's firecrackers before Ocelot, Miller, Huey, and a few soldiers come out with a birthday cake and a fresh Cuban cigar for a birthday present. Even [[DefrostingTheIceQueen Quiet]] wishes him a happy birthday after the party in her own special way. Snake is so surprised, he actually tears up a little!
* In ''VideoGame/EdnaAndHarveyTheBreakout'' Petra has prepared a surprise party for Peter - on the toilet, of all places. Peter has found out and avoids going to the there, since he's a depressed BirthdayHater.
* ''VideoGame/Disgaea5AllianceOfVengeance'': The subplot for unlocking the ''Disgaea 1'' cast (and [[VideoGame/DisgaeaD2ABrighterDarkness Sicily]]) involves Sicily and Flonne trying to plan a surprise birthday party for Laharl.

* The ending of Emma’s story in ''VideoGame/BalanWonderworld''. [[spoiler: The reason Emma ends up in the Balan Theater was because she was worried about what the other people in her house are whispering about; thinking they’re talking about her behind her back. At the end of the game, it turns out they were actually planning a surprise birthday party for her.]]

The other case that frequently happens is the person is [[IronicBirthday having a miserable day]], and announces it so that all the party guests can hear it. Hopefully, the surprise party will help to fix their rotten day, though it isn't guaranteed. It's also possible that the friends may be inspired to throw the surprise party ''because'' they heard about the character's rotten day. Or maybe worse, the character might be a BirthdayHater or [[GrumpyBear otherwise not a fan]] [[TheEeyore of celebrating]]; perhaps their friends' kindness will give them a change of heart, or perhaps not.

* A late-season episode of ''Series/AdamTwelve'' occurs on Officer Malloy's birthday. With the department having a few surprise parties in the past month, he fears that he'll have one which will interfere with his date that night. His partner, Officer Reed, keeps denying that there's a surprise party planned but a couple of cases of beer in the locker room arouse Malloy's suspicions. [[spoiler:As it turns out, there ''is'' no party, at least not for him. The beer is for a party the next day celebrating the recuperation of a previously wounded officer, which was referenced in the briefing at the start of the watch.]]

* ''Literature/PostHighSchoolRealityQuest'': On Buffy's birthday, Chase texts her, saying his car flipped over, he's on his way to the hospital, and he needs her to go to Merrill's house to help him with the car. When she arrives, she finds Chase, Merrill, Tristan, Sephora, and a cake that says "Happy birthday, Buffy!" in binary. The others are surprised by how concerned Buffy was over Tristan's fake accident.

* In ''Manga/ShonanJunaiGumi'', Ryuji's friends throw him a surprise early 16th birthday party to cheer him up.

* Jonathan Hickman's run on ''Comicbook/FantasticFour'' featured a surprise birthday party for Franklin Richards. It's easy to pull off a surprise party when the guest of honor's mother can turn all the party trappings and guests invisible.

* In ''FanFic/AGrowingAffection'', Naruto gets two for his 16th birthday, one played with and the other played straight. Though he knows Hinata intends to celebrate with him, he doesn't know what she has in mind, so the events of the day are a surprise. Meanwhile Tsunade throws a normal (if huge) surprise party for him, which almost gets ruined because she left Hinata out of the loop.
* In the ''[[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic]]'' fanfic "[[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/1983/1/the-birds-and-the-bees/the-birds-and-the-bees The Birds and the Bees]]," the ponies throw a surprise party for Rainbow Dash because they thought she was going to have a foal. This was because she had said as much to the Cutie Mark Crusaders in an attempt to obfuscate the fact that nobody had ever given her TheTalk.

* WesternAnimation/{{Beetlejuice}} and his neighbors throw one for Lydia in ''[[FanFic/{{Cinderjuice}} The Bug Princess]]'', to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the day he and she met. The party itself is played perfectly straight, although it then leads into a somewhat dubious flashback of exactly how they did meet.

* In a LightNovel side story for ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'', Class 1-A throws a surprise party for their class president, Iida. He's so [[TheComicallySerious dutiful and uptight]] that he completely forgets that it ''is'' his birthday and fails to see through his classmates' obvious attempts at hiding the party from him, believing that he instead must of done something wrong to get them all to avoid him all day.

* ''Series/TheDickVanDykeShow'': In "A Surprise is a Surprise is a Surprise," Laura outwits Rob by pretending that she was planning a surprise birthday party for him (which she does every year and he always finds out in advance) but her plans fell through - but then it turns out that that was a fib, and the surprise party happens early in the morning.