History Main / TimePassageBeard

[[quoteright:350:[[Film/KnockedUp http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/knocked-up1_7266.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Nine month later...]]

* In HowIMetYourMother, Ted becomes part of a very long discussion about Teddy Roosevelt with another man and a woman. He explains it went of for "days" and by the end, the other man and Ted have grown long beards.

Compare HairTodayGoneTomorrow.

A long amount of time passes. A character is shown in the next scene with a beard. Often used in animated media as RuleOfFunny and sometimes involves the beard [[StatusQuoIsGod disappearing in the next scene]] or even being ripped off by previously mentioned character character. Nearly AlwaysMale, except in the very few occasions where it is used with women. (usually limited to hair length or GirlsWithMustaches parody) A form of ShowDontTell.

A long amount of time passes. A character is shown in the next scene with a beard. Often used in animated media as RuleOfFunny and sometimes involves the beard [[StatusQuoIsGod disappearing in the next scene]] or even being ripped off by previously mentioned character character. Nearly AlwaysMale, except in the very few occasions where it is used with women. (usually limited to hair length or GirlsWithMustaches parody) A form of ShowDontTell. Not to be confused with GrowingTheBeard

* Parodied in an episode of TinyToons where Babs is looking for a personal hero in old cartoons. As she sits in the Acme Looniversity archive the camera pans around and when it comes back to her she has a long gray beard and a cane. She tosses the cane aside, then rips the beard off and is about to storm off in frustration but decides to watch one more film.
* Averted in ''WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs'' episode "Smurf Van Winkle" (and its comic book counterpart "The Strange Awakening Of Lazy Smurf"), where the only characters seen with any Time Passage Beards are the Smurfs that claim that Lazy has slept for a few hundred years. Of course, the whole thing was a FakedRipVanWinkle, since the Smurfs were wearing fake beards.

* One ''ComicStrip/FoxTrot'' strip evokes this trope, showing Paige on the phone, Jason walking by wearing an obviously fake beard, bald wig and cane. Paige's response is "[[DontExplainTheJoke I haven't been on the phone THAT long!]]"

* Parodied in an episode of TinyToons where Babs is looking for a personal hero in old cartoons. As she sits in the Acme Looniversity archive the camera pans around and when it comes back to her she has a long gray beard and a cane. She tosses the cane aside, then rips the beard off and is about to storm off in frustration but decides to watch one more film.

* ''TheBigBangTheory'': the gang goes to the North Pole for three months; when they come back all have big beards ([[PermaShave except Sheldon]]).

** Also from the revived ''DoctorWho''; in "The Doctor's Wife", Amy stumbles across Rory's dead body in a RoomFullOfCrazy, having grown a beard, aged, and eventually starved to death. [[spoiler: Don't worry, he gets better.]]

* In one scene in the "Blood Gulch Chronicles" of ''RedVsBlue'', Church spends a thousand years standing in a hallway waiting for a computer to fabricate a teleporter ([[CerebusRetcon ...maybe]]). By the end of it, Church has a massive beard drawn on his sprite. Played for laughs, given he's in a robotic body at this point.

* One {{Foxtrot}} strip evokes this trope, showing Paige on the phone, Jason walking by wearing an obviously fake beard, bald wig and cane. Paige's response is "[[DontExplainTheJoke I haven't been on the phone THAT long!]]"

* Happens to Superman in the ''JusticeLeague'' episode "Hereafter".

* ''Series/{{House}}'' the season 2 finale has House awaken from a coma. He determines roughly how long he had been out (three days) by the amount of growth of his PermaStubble.

* ''MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'': when a milkman's PizzaBoySpecialDelivery is {{Subverted}}, he's locked in a room with many other milkmen with various lenghths of beard.

* Arthur Dent grows one of these when he is trapped on Earth 2 million years ago in the ''HitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' books.

* ''SouthPark'': when Cartman awakes from a coma, he's got a big beard. [[SubvertedTrope But it's just a facewarmer]], he's only been out for a day or so.

* DieAnotherDay. When JamesBond is finally freed by the North Koreans more than a year after his capture, he's grown a beard (as well as a mustache and long, shaggy hair).

* Inverted in ''Film/IronMan3''. In the opening scene set in 1999, Happy is shown with a beard and longer hair, but has it shaved off in the present.

* Happened to Ash in the deleted alternate ending of ArmyOfDarkness, when he "slept too long" and [[DownerEnding overshot the 20th century.]]

* Not only does Kenshiro grow a beard in the animated movie in between his assault by Shin and encountering Bat and Lin (And then shaves it using some thug's knife), but he also develops a beard at the start of the second series, shaving it once he finally begins to fight again.

A long amount of time passes. A character is shown in the next scene with a beard. Often used in animated media as RuleOfFunny and sometimes involves the beard [[StatusQuoIsGod disappearing in the next scene]] or even being ripped off by previously mentioned character character. Nearly AlwaysMale, except in the very few occasions where it is used with women. (usually limited to hair length or WomenWithMustaches parody) A form of ShowDontTell. Not to be confused with GrowingTheBeard

A long amount of time passes. A character is shown in the next scene with a beard. Usually used in cartoons as RuleOfFunny and sometimes involves the beard [[StatusQuoIsGod disappearing in the next scene]] or even being ripped of by said character. Is occasionally used simply with hair length (nearly always in female cases). Not to be confused with GrowingTheBeard

* Done in {{Thorgal}} - after he escapes from caves where time flow was slowed, he wakes up with a long beard the next day. Not at all played for comedy, as the girl he was with had spent most of her live there and got aged into a shrivelled husk overnight.

* In the sixth series of ''Series/DoctorWho'', the opening two-parter has the Doctor (who has always previously been beardless) imprisoned for several months and growing a beard. It happens again in the season finale.

* DieAnotherDay. When JamesBond is finally freed by the North Koreans more than a year after his capture, he's grown a beard (as well as a mustache and long, shaggy hair).