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[[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/birthday_alone_1.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[Music/LesleyGore It's my party, and I'll cry if I want to.]]]]
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->'''Pinkie Pie:''' Thank you all so much for coming! It means so much to Gummy.\\
'''Pinkie Pie voicing a bucket of turnips:''' Could I have some more punch?\\
'''Pinkie Pie:''' Well, of course you can have some more punch, Mr. Turnip. ''[[TwitchyEye (twitches)]]''\\
'''Pinkie Pie voicing a pile of rocks:''' This is one great pahty! You really outdone yourself!
-->-- ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'', "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E25PartyOfOne Party of One]]"

You've spent hours hanging balloons, decorations, and banners on the wall. You've cooked the food to perfection. The cake is ready, and the candles have already been lit. The presents are waiting to be opened. You even have the music all sorted out. It's a perfect birthday party.

There's just one problem: nobody else is coming.

Birthdays are supposed to be a great occasion to get together with friends, when everything is about you. So when someone has only themselves with whom to celebrate their birthday, it's a sign that [[FriendlessBackground they really are alone]].

Writers tend to use this trope to establish that the character in question is TheWoobie (if PlayedForDrama) or TheChewToy (if PlayedForLaughs). This character may also be a CloudCuckooLander since these will often misunderstand the point of rituals, and may make a LiteralMinded interpretation of the "everything is about you" idea. (If a friend is there, then not everything is, technically, about you.)

Compare NotSoForgottenBirthday and ABirthdayNotABreak. Could be the result of a PerenniallyOvershadowedBirthday or BirthdayBuddies situation, with everyone choosing to celebrate the holiday or the ''other'' person's birthday instead.

At least this character is making an effort. Contrast NeverHadABirthdayParty, where a character does not bother with the pretense of a celebration, maybe because they do not even understand the idea.

Has absolutely nothing to do with TwoPersonPoolParty.
----
!!Examples:
[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* In ''Literature/{{Konosuba}}'' (Season 2, Episode 2 for the anime), a PensieveFlashback to [[ChildMage Megumin]] and [[UnknownRival Yunyun's]] memories of their time in the academy depicts Yunyun throwing a birthday party all to herself, presumably due to her FriendlessBackground.
* ''Anime/MazingerZ'': In episode 19, the SmallNameBigEgo ButtMonkey Boss tries to get people to purchase tickets to attend his birthday party. However everyone runs away from him, and he can not figure out why. [[TheHero Kouji]] tries to explain to him that people don't like getting bullied into paying for a party they do not want to go to start with. Finally, Kouji agrees to attend Boss' party out of pity and even performs a couple of tricks with his bike so that more people come. However, during the party, Kouji gets summoned to the [[HomeBase Institute]], and he leaves. As a result, everybody else leaves too, leaving Boss alone.
* ''Anime/ParanoiaAgent'': In the second episode a character, Yuuichi "Icchi" Taira, had this happen to him as his classmates think he was the one who struck a fellow classmate, Shougo, as Lil Slugger due to wearing gold colored roller blades. Despite trying to state otherwise, only his tutor, Harumi, shows up.
* Though not a birthday but used in a similar context, in ''Anime/TwinPrincessOfWonderPlanet'', Bright spends an entire episode preparing for a lavish party to celebrate becoming the king after taking over the Wonder Planet. While decorating, he imagines his LoveInterest Fine showing up. Fine does show up to talk some sense into him but is repulsed by his BrainwashedAndCrazy nature. She's later saved by her friends, including Rein, a {{Fangirl}} of Bright, and Bright's sister, Altezza, both who are shocked at his behavior as well. They leave him all alone while he celebrates sadly to himself.
* In ''Anime/YokaiWatchShadowsideTheReturnOfTheOniKing'', Touma Tsukinami spent many birthdays alone in his youth. He could have avoided this if he opened the door of his home to reveal that Natsume and her friends were waiting at the entrance of his home to visit him, but Touma tragically mistook their hard insistent knocks for the mailman and pretended to not be at home, thus missing his chance to not being alone.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* In the ''ComicBook/AdventureTimeGraphicNovels'', Jake and BMO are the only people who turn up to Ice King's failed party.
* In ''ComicBook/SupergirlWomanOfTomorrow'', ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} celebrates her twenty-first birthday alone by going to an alien bar alone and drinking her sorrows.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Fan Works]]
* In the ''Fanfic/EmpathTheLuckiestSmurf'' story "Smurfed Behind: The Departure", the Smurfs are all busy preparing for Empath's 155th birthday party when they all get sucked into the prehistoric past when Papa Smurf opens a time portal to bring the baby dinosaur they found back home. By the time Empath arrives, only Polaris Psyche is left in the village, and the party is pretty much abandoned as Empath heartbreakingly celebrates his birthday by toasting marshmallows instead.
* In ''[[Fanfic/MayIHaveThisDanceSailorKingMischief May I have this dance?]]'', since everyone forgot that it was her birthday -- her quinceañera no less-- Mirabel ends up celebrating by herself in the nursery. That is until Antonio shows up with a gift, this being the only light in an otherwise dark day for her.
* ''Fanfic/VowOfNudity'': On the 1-year anniversary of her first story, Spectra's author posted a picture on [=DeviantArt=] of Spectra sitting alone in her darkened trailer staring sadly at a single cupcake.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Film]]
* ''Film/TheAfter'': For someone else, but the effect is the same. Dayo's wife and daughter are murdered in a senseless act of random violence. One year later, he is so shattered and grief-stricken that he can barely function. He is shown alone, pulling out a photo, possibly of his daughter, and singing "Happy Birthday to You" as his eyes brim with tears.
* ''Film/TheAmazingSpiderMan2'' has this with Max before he becomes Electro. Since nobody remembers his birthday, Max celebrates it all by himself by buying a small birthday cake, putting up some meager decorations, and even making a invite card all for him.
* The [[FriendlessBackground lonely]] hero of ''Film/TheBestOffer'' is seen all by himself on his birthday at the restaurant.
* In ''Film/TheGame1997'', Nicholas Van Orten is an extremely wealthy, attractive man who is so [[MarriedToTheJob married to the job]] that he spends his birthday working even though he's the boss, and the only thing he has to mark the occasion is a surprise birthday cupcake left by his housekeeper to go with his solitary supper. If you didn't catch how this relates to subsequent events, take some time to think about it.
* This is the killer's motivation in ''Film/HappyBirthdayToMe''. [[spoiler:At least that's what the person who framed Ginny wanted people to think]].
* ''Film/HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone'' has Harry lying on the ground of the cabin and drawing a birthday cake with candles in the dirt. At midnight, making it his birthday, he blows out the candles on the drawing. [[DynamicEntry Then Hagrid knocks the door right off its hinges]].
* ''Film/IntoTheArmsOfStrangersStoriesOfTheKindertransport'': A documentary about German and Austrian Jewish children being rescued from UsefulNotes/NaziGermany. One woman recalls that the truth about her situation as a little girl in 1938 Vienna after the Nazis rolled in was brought home to her when nobody came to her birthday party.
* In ''Film/LittleManTate'', the main character hands out invitations to his party at school, only to see them blowing around on the ground when they rush in from recess. Cut to the party, where it's just him and his mom (and she doesn't count).
* ''Film/PromWars'': A variant occurs when a flashback shows Tess's roommates throwing her a birthday party that they attend, but they spend three hours vainly waiting for the boys they invited to show up. Tess eventually starts crying.
* In ''Film/TheShapeOfWater'', there's a brief scene of a depressed-looking man at a bus stop, holding a balloon and a birthday cake. One slice is taken out of the cake, suggesting he was expecting his friends to show up but they didn't.
* ''Film/{{Stella Dallas|1937}}'' - well, not quite, since Stella and the maid are there. But Laurel is crushed when neither her teacher nor any of her friends will come to her birthday party, because they don't approve of Stella.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* In ''Literature/DorothyMustDie,'' Amy remembers the day before her sixth birthday party. She invited her class, but the school bully Madison told everyone not to go to Amy's party because Amy was poor and her clothes were dirty, and they would be dirty too if they went. Nobody came to the party.
* ''Literature/HarryPotter'' makes it clear that the Dursleys tend to ignore or forget his birthday. In ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets Chamber of Secrets]]'', Harry sings Happy Birthday to himself. His birthdays improve from the third book onward because of his [[TrueCompanions friends]] and [[ParentalSubstitute Mrs Weasley]].
* ''Literature/InCryptid'': Not even his own sister came to [[TheWoobie Artie]]'s twelfth birthday party. Fortunately, his best friend and cousin Sarah did, and they had fun until [[spoiler:he said he liked her.[[note]]She's adopted AND a different species from him, so this was less KissingCousins squick and more "she thought she was subconsciously mind-controlling him to like her".[[/note]]]]
* ''Literature/TheMysteriousDisappearanceOfLeonIMeanNoel'': Mrs. Carillon's parents forget about her twelfth birthday because of their work, leaving her to sing "Happy Birthday to Me" alone in the house. Her party is interrupted by the sound of the factory explosion that kills her parents.
* ''Literature/TheOceanAtTheEndOfTheLane'' opens with the line "No-one came to my seventh birthday party."
* ''Literature/WingsOfFire'': Prince Fathom mentions that nobody came to his sixth birthday party, and no dragons (except maybe his crush Indigo and his sister Pearl) talked to him about it.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* In the ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'' episode "[[Recap/ArrestedDevelopmentS1E8MyMotherTheCar My Mother the Car]]", Michael Bluth organizes a surprise birthday party for his family's matriarch, Lucille, which no one else shows up to, because Lucille is a RichBitch. After lecturing the rest of his family, he organizes a do-over... which no one shows up to, ''again''.
* On ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'', in a hypothetical AlternateUniverse where Sheldon and Leonard are not living together, Amy is tearfully singing the Happy Birthday song to herself since she would have never met the gang.
-->Happy birthday to me\\
Happy birthday to me\\
There are tears in the frosting\\
Happy birthday to me.
* On the first season of ''Series/ADifferentWorld'', Whitley's birthday is coming up and she planned on spending it with her best friend, Millie - who backs out because she and her boyfriend, Ron, are celebrating their 3-month anniversary. Near the end of the episode, Whitley sadly sings "Happy Birthday To Me" to herself with a cupcake and a single candle in it. Averted as everyone comes in right after she finishes singing.
* In an episode of ''Series/FamilyMatters'', Steve Urkel ends up celebrating his 20th birthday by himself since no one else remembered. When Carl finds out what's going on, he tries to make it up to him.
* ''Series/TheGoldenGirls'': Rose flashes back to a time when she celebrated her birthday alone, after the death of her husband.
* During a flashback in an episode of ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'', Barney's mom gives him a letter from the U.S. Postmaster General, apologizing that all the invitations mailed out for his birthday party were lost in the mail, leaving him alone on his birthday. Strangely, the handwriting looked very similar to his mom's.
* In one episode of ''Series/LawAndOrderCriminalIntent'', Goren and Eames are investigating a murder which seems to have been committed by one of a pair of constantly sniping married psychologists. Each is convinced the other is guilty, while their daughter is caught in the middle. Goren catches sight of a photo in which the daughter, aged around eight, is having one of these, celebrating with only household staff in attendance because her parents aren't around. [[spoiler:The insight this gives him into the family dynamic helps him realize the truth - the daughter committed the murder, and is framing both parents, as revenge for her miserable childhood.]]
* The short-lived 1990 sitcom ''Molloy'' has the title character convinced her father, stepmother and siblings are playing a NotSoForgottenBirthday prank, going into each room and practicing a shocked face only to find it empty. When they come home, she realizes they all took a ride in a new sports car and honestly ''did'' forget her birthday and don't grasp why she's eating a small cake by herself. To their credit, when they realize it the next day, they're horrified by their idiocy and try to throw a lavish party...only for Molloy, assuming they're still ignorant, to hit a theme park with a friend.
* TheChewToy Misty of the ShowWithinAShow ''Moody's Point'' from ''Series/TheAmandaShow'' throws a birthday party but no one comes. She ends up singing karaoke with the janitor.
* In an episode of ''Series/MrBean'', Mr Bean goes to a restaurant on his own for his birthday, and gives himself a birthday card. Unlike many examples of this trope, he seems quite content with the situation.
* ''Series/OnceUponATime'' begins this way. When it turns out that her date was just a sham to get a bounty, Emma goes home to have a cupcake with a single candle on it by herself. She blows out the candle, presumably wishing she wasn't alone, and there's a knock at the door, which turns out to be the son she gave up for adoption ten years ago.
** Paralleled in a Season 7 flashback with Alice, though considering [[spoiler:she was magically trapped at the time and the only person who knew her whereabouts had been cursed to keep away from her]], it's obvious she wasn't alone by choice.
* On ''Series/ParksAndRecreation'', Ron Swanson celebrates one of his birthdays alone in a small office with a steak and a bottle of scotch. The twist is that this is the party that his friend Leslie has thrown for him, knowing what he likes.
* Creator/LouisCK's appearance on ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' featured this when he hires [[NonIronicClown a birthday clown]] [[https://youtu.be/X-XuT5qKt00 as entertainment]]. The clown is [[LonersAreFreaks decidedly creeped out]] before warming up to the lonely guy - [[spoiler:only for Ernest to reveal that he plans on chopping the clown into pieces to put in his fridge]].
-->'''Ernest''': That was pretty funny. ''(Pulls out some money to give Dodo)''\\
'''Dodo''': Are you giving me a tip?\\
'''Ernest''': Yeah, you want me to wait 'til after?\\
'''Dodo''': Yeah, no, there's no protocol for whatever-this-is.
* A flashback in ''Series/{{Smallville}}'' shows that as a kid, Lex Luthor had a birthday all alone. It gave context to his [[DarkAndTroubledPast miserable childhood]] and how he developed into the adult he eventually became.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Music]]
* "Pity Party" by Music/MelanieMartinez about her tragic character, Cry Baby. In this case, she throws a birthday party, inviting her boyfriend and a few others, but no one shows up. She tries to stay positive, saying she'll have more cake, but she quickly spirals into depressed psychosis, trashing her party without enjoyment, and feeling acute loneliness.
-->It's my party and I'll cry if I want to\\
Cry if I want to\\
Cry, cry, cry\\
I'll cry until the candles burn down this place\\
I'll cry until my pity party's in flames
* Music/NinjaSexParty's "Danny Don't You Know" shows Arin as the only other person at the teenage Danny's birthday party.
-->''You sent birthday invites, and now all your friend is here!''
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]
* Not a birthday, but when Wrestling/AJLee threw a party to celebrate her becoming the longest-reigning Divas Champion ever, she was the only one in attendance.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theatre]]
* ''Theatre/CrimesOfTheHeart'' begins with the main character trying to have one of these, attempting to stick a birthday candle into a cookie.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* In the opening prologue of ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamKnight'', as you walk around in Pauli's diner, there is a lone man at a booth with a small cupcake with his name, 'Noel', on it with a single lit candle. Noel is downtrodden and will give you a dirty look if you approach him. He will then return to looking downtrodden as his cupcake. Unfortunately, this is only the start of his troubles, as [[spoiler:the booth next to him is a Scarecrow henchmen about to deploy fear gas in the diner]].
* The "Claptrap's Birthday Bash" sidequest from ''VideoGame/Borderlands2'', where you send invitations to Claptrap's birthday party for him. None of the guests accept the invitation, so you end up alone with Claptrap. You could make it a little less sad by having four players go, but that's four out of six playable characters -- under the best circumstances, not even all the Vault Hunters go to Claptrap's party, which only ends up lasting a few minutes. WordOfGod states that the mission was based off of an actual One Man Birthday Party that the creative designer once witnessed.
* An unusual variation in Freebird Games' standalone title ''Do You Remember My Lullaby?''. The game focuses on an impoverished, divorced single mother caring for her young son, who asks if she can make her special cake for his birthday. She decides to surprise him with it and surreptitiously begins skipping meals in order to save up enough money for the ingredients. However, on the day of her son's birthday, he goes on a scheduled visit to his (much richer) father's home, who invites him to stay overnight. The mother sets up some meagre decorations and gets the cake ready, waiting for her son to come home... but as night falls, he never does and the last scene of the game is her blowing out the candles lighting the room.
* Blue, one of the Brothers Bear in ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry3DixieKongsDoubleTrouble'', is depressed that no one remembered his birthday when you first meet him. As it turns out, one of his brothers - Blizzard - DID remember, but was too far away to attend the party. As such, it falls to the Kongs to relay his gift (and when they do, Blue cheers up considerably).
* ''VideoGame/{{Farpoint}}'' has a ''two''-person birthday, between Dr. Eva Tyson and Dr. Grant Moon, two astronauts stranded on an alien world where they discover earth is [[YouCantGoHomeAgain 3 billion years away]]. Resigning to their fate, Eva decides to cheer up Grant by reminding him it's his birthday and she remembers it, even having a small cake with her.
* In the ''Ruin'' DLC for ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddysSecurityBreach'', this is implied. The last of Roxy's recollection lines to Cassie is "Did you book your party? I'm sure your friends will show up this time." Roxy is honestly trying to reassure Cassie about this, implying that when Cassie had her birthday party at the Pizzaplex, Roxy was the only other one there. [[spoiler:This is done to highlight the tragedy of the scene. Cassie has to deactivate Roxy to advance, which the game treats as a MercyKill that [[ShootTheDog Cassie still feels terrible about doing]], since Roxy was the only person who ever cared at Cassie's birthday party.]]
* In ''VideoGame/NierReincarnation'', the "Garden of Benediction" event is about the Girl having one of these. Since she's grown up in absolute poverty, she has no idea what a birthday cake looks smells, or tastes like, so she makes one out of dirt. In the background of the story, Mama is watching from afar until she decides to give her a real birthday cake, even though it violates whatever AlienNonInterferenceClause she's supposed to keep up.
* The titular party in ''VideoGame/PityParty'' starts out with just the protagonist celebrating alone, before two guests do show up. At the end, she ends up alone again.
* In the first ''VideoGame/SimonTheSorcerer'' game, when Simon visits the swampling's house, Swampy mistakes him for a guest that's come to celebrate Swampy's birthday. Swampy's actual birthday was three weeks earlier, but Swampy doesn't mind Simon being late because he's still the first guest to show up.
* A disturbingly large amount of fanwork depicts Alice Margatroid of ''Franchise/TouhouProject'' this way, perhaps due to her (fanon) isolationist, {{tsundere}} persona. Yuuka Kazami [[https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/497/710/b2d.jpg occasionally gets this treatment]] too, though in her case it's because of her [[InformedAttribute (sometimes supposed)]] AxCrazy personality.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Animation]]
* Variants in Episode 39 of ''WebAnimation/TheMostPopularGirlsInSchool'': Brittnay, Mackenzie, and Trisha throw a New Year Eve's party, but nobody (except Deandra, eventually) shows up; kind of {{Justified}}, as they're {{Alpha Bitch}}es. OTOH, this is deliberately {{Invoked}} with [[HeterosexualLifePartners Rachel's & Judith's]] party.
* ''[[Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog Sonic]] [[https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/11299736/ wishes himself a happy birthday]]'' has that blue hedgehog celebrating his birthday, all alone.
* The ''WebAnimation/TacoMan [[VideoGame/MarioPaint Paint]]'' short "Today is My Birthday" has the title character throw one for himself, because [[spoiler:all his friends died beforehand]].
* In the ''WebVideo/UltraFastPony'' episode "Purple Party Pooper", Twilight sends invitations for her birthday party, then finds out that no one is planning to attend. She becomes increasingly unhinged as she tries to figure out why her friends won't come. The end of the episode implies that Princess Celestia had the same problem (the day was coincidentally her birthday as well)--since Twi was the only one to show up, and she only came because Celestia commanded her.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* In ''Webcomic/BrawlInTheFamily'', one of [[http://brawlinthefamily.keenspot.com/comic/triloigi/ the Waluigi-themed comics]] depicts Waluigi as the only attendee of his own birthday party. This comes as a big MoodWhiplash for people familiar with the [[DadaComics Waluigi strips]]. As mentioned in the newspost, one forum member rewrote the DownerEnding of the strip to portray Waluigi as someone who prefers to celebrate alone and another wrote an alternate version where Luigi came by.
* In the achingly beautiful ''[[http://strangelykatie.deviantart.com/art/Counting-Stars-Full-Comic-290955152 Counting Stars]]'', the main character comes home on her 16th birthday to find a cupcake and a note of apology from her mother. She has no friends and no one with whom to share the special day, and is clearly despondent.
* Narrowly averted in the BirthdayEpisode of ''Webcomic/CobwebAndStripes'', when Lydia turns 19. Her apologetic father must be out of town for a business meeting, and her oblivious stepmother has a gallery showing of her hideous art. Fortunately for the birthday girl, Betelgeuse is eavesdropping on the conversation and arranges for a much better celebration.
* In ''Webcomic/TheHandbookOfHeroes'' comic [[https://www.handbookofheroes.com/archives/comic/throw-anything "Throw Anything"]], Thief celebrates her birthday alone after discovering that her Throw Anything feat does not apply to throwing parties.
* In [[http://www.loadingartist.com/comic/happy-birthday-to-me/ Happy Birthday to Me]] from ''Webcomic/LoadingArtist''.
* Played with in one ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'' [[https://reddit.com/r/TheOwlHouse/comments/wf7dc5/quiet/ comic]] by [[Webcomic/MoringMarkTOHComics MoringMark]], where Eda actually has a large group of people band together to throw her a birthday party despite the fact that they're all trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Luz on the other hand is shown sitting in the dark with a cupcake on Earth, quietly wishing Eda a happy birthday while not even knowing if she's ''alive'' much less that she has others with her.
* ''Webcomic/{{Nedroid}}'' has a lonely bear sitting beneath a banner reading "Happy Birthday", which currently provides the image for ForgottenBirthday.
* In [[https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/2014-09-27 this]] ''Webcomic/SaturdayMorningBreakfastCereal'' comic, a man uses induction to prove that ''any'' number of people constitutes a party.
* In ''Webcomic/{{Sinfest}}'' [[http://www.sinfest.net/view.php?date=2012-06-10 it's revealed]] that this was one of many BreakTheCutie moments for Lil' Evil throughout his life.
* ''Webcomic/{{xkcd}}'' has [[https://xkcd.com/680/ this child whose birthday is December 25th]], whose family is busy celebrating Christmas and forget about his birthday.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Video]]
* During the Exile Arc of the ''WebVideo/DreamSMP'', Tommy held a beach party in Logstedshire, and invited practically everyone. However, only Dream showed up, and when he did, it was twenty minutes late. Not even Ghostbur, the one in charge of delivering the invitations, showed up. [[spoiler:Later, this turns out to be {{invoked|Trope}}, [[StalkerWithoutACrush Dre]][[ManipulativeBastard am]] took the invitations from Ghostbur, sent him off to go for a walk in the snow ([[KillTheCutie Ghostbur melts]] [[KillItWithWater when he touches water]], though he thankfully survived that ordeal), and [[{{Gaslighting}} played dumb]] when Tommy asked if anything happened to the invitations.]]
-->'''Dream:''' [[spoiler:I made sure nobody would show up to your party, so that you'd have no friends except me.]]
* In the ''WebVideo/LoadingReadyRun'' Crapshot [[https://youtu.be/CdUgHkGA1hE "The Cooking"]], The Decadent Man (Ian Horner's eccentric upper-class aristocrat character) tells the viewer about the decadence of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sous_vide sous vide]] cooking. Cut to him pulling a fully-baked, iced cupcake out of his cooking rig, singing "Happy Birthday" to himself and digging in with a spoon.
* ''WebVideo/NeuroSama'': In keeping with Vedal's trend of ParentalFavoritism, Evil Neuro's birthday stream was just herself. She even sang happy birthday to herself, and insisted her family was simply busy.
* ''WebVideo/StacheBros'': In "Episode 2-4 -- The Creature From The Egg" of "Mario & Luigi! Stache Bros", Waluigi is introduced alone at his birthday party. Depressed that no one seems to care about his birthday, Waluigi just sits and listens to his mood music...that is, until the boombox explodes.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* A good number of childhood flashbacks in ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}'' involve Sterling sitting by himself crying. One related to his birthday had him in a run-down apartment all by himself, his butler/nanny locked in a bathroom getting high and his mother out of the country on a secret agent job ("Guatemala's democratically-elected government [[PuppetState wasn't gonna overthrow itself]]!"). [[spoiler:Then Sterling's anonymous father entered to give him a stuffed alligator. Given the adult Sterling has an intense and uncharacteristic fear and hatred of alligators, it's not clear quite what that means on a psychological level.]]
* The ''WesternAnimation/CowAndChicken'' episode "Factory Follies", in which Red Guy plays the foreman of a factory who treats his employees like worthless slaves. At the end of the workday, he reminds everyone that his surprise birthday party will be held in the conference room later that night. Of course, nobody shows up, so he throws the party for himself and sings, "Oh birthday boy, add one more year/oh birthday boy with a big fat rear!"
* Happens to Ling Ling in ''WesternAnimation/DrawnTogether'', just as someone was mentioning "Now everyone is happy".
* A CutawayGag in the ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode "[[Recap/FuturamaS3E14TimeKeepsOnSlippin Time Keeps on Slippin]]" shows that nobody came to Zoidberg's birthday party, in the episode where time keeps skipping.
* Flashbacks in ''WesternAnimation/HarleyQuinn2019'' show this for Ivy, likely due to both having dysfunctional parents and being a green skinned plant person from childhood in this continuity.
* Exaggerated for comedy in ''WesternAnimation/MegasXLR''. Jamie, trying to get a favour, insists that he's always been there for Coop. Cue to Coop recalling all the times Jamie has left him hanging, including Coop waiting alone in front of a movie theater, at the amusement park, this trope as Coop sits alone at a table for his birthday party, and then Coop sitting alone at a table for ''Jamie's'' birthday party.
* The ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' episode [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E25PartyOfOne "Party of One"]] plays with this one. Pinkie celebrates a party with a bunch of inanimate objects because her friends were busy, and she thinks that they don't want to be her friends anymore -- but the party in question is for (the day after) her pet alligator's birthday, not her own. At the end, it's revealed that the real reason her friends can't attend this party is because [[spoiler:they're organizing a surprise party for Pinkie's birthday. [[ForgotTheirOwnBirthday Pinkie had somehow completely forgotten her own birthday.]] Since she only attends this party after Rainbow Dash drags her there, the cast almost winds up with a party where everyone ''except'' the birthday girl shows up]].
* Exaggerated and parodied in the backstory of Doofenshmirtz in ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb''. He states that neither of his parents bothered to show up to his birth, and that he had to throw surprise birthday parties for himself. Also, at age eight, he was abandoned at a SuckECheeses to the point that the employees working there let him lock up the shop at closing.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS18E8TheHawHawedCouple The Haw-Hawed Couple]]", Nelson throws a birthday party and invites all of his classmates. Bart is the only one to turn up because Marge forces him to go.
*** Brought up in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E2RadioactiveMan Radioactive Man]]", when Nelson laughs at himself for screwing up the audition for Radioactive Man's sidekick, Fallout Boy.
--->'''Nelson:''' Ha-ha! Wait a minute... [[MadeMyselfSad that hurt.]] [[HeelRealization So that's why nobody came to my birthday party.]]
** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS3E1StarkRavingDad Stark Raving Dad]]", it's Lisa's eighth birthday. She begs Bart not to forget, but he does. Lisa is eventually shown sitting at the kitchen table with a small cake, singing sadly and crying to herself. Technically, Lisa's little sister Maggie is also there, but Maggie is too young to talk, let alone understand what's going on.
--->Happy birthday to me,\\
Happy birthday to me,\\
Happy birthday, overlooked middle child,\\
Happy birthday to me.
* The ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' episode "[[Recap/SouthParkS1E9MrHankeyTheChristmasPoo Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo]]" ends with Jesus singing "Happy Birthday" all by himself.
* ''WesternAnimation/SummerCampIsland''. In the episode "It's My Party," Susie tries to invite all the campers to her birthday party, but no one shows up. Oscar and Hedgehog then see Susie inside her cabin, singing a sad birthday song to herself, and using her magic to conjure up a cupcake with a single birthday candle on it, [[KickTheDog which is then stolen by a bat.]]
** In the same episode, Oscar reveals that nobody showed up to his fifth birthday party, not even Hedgehog, ''his best friend.'' She claims she was busy that day.
* ''WesternAnimation/TwelveForever'': In "Secrets Forever", Reggie, Todd and Esther stumble across a supposedly deserted grocery store which forms products that reveal embarrassing secrets about themselves when opened. They go through three of Reggie's with the third one revealing she had tried to invite her classmates to her 11th birthday party. But since her classmates found her too childish and weird, only her mother's friend showed up.
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[[folder:Real Life]]
* For its one year anniversary on the planet Mars, the Curiosity Mars rover used [[EverythingIsAnInstrument one of its on-board instruments]] to hum "Happy Birthday" to itself all by its lonesome.
* Invoked by Creator/StephenHawking. He once [[https://mashable.com/2018/03/14/stephen-hawking-time-travel-party/ threw a champagne party]] with invites being sent only after the party was over, in order to either prove or disprove the existence of time travelers. Nobody but Hawking showed up.
[[/folder]]
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