Birthday Episode

I love you. You love me. It's a happy birthday weeee!

"You get your very own spotlight tonight
'Cause it's all about you
Yeah, it's all about Pearl
You're the birthday girl..."

— Boys Who Cry, SpongeBob SquarePants, "Whale of a Birthday"

So our character(s) wake up to a normal day. It's your typical average day, and everyone is mulling about their own business...

But wait! What's THIS!?

It's somebody's birthday! The birthday episode is where an episode is dedicated to celebrating someone's birthday.

Typically seen in fiction as a device with various possible purposes, ranging from showing what characters were like in the past, having an opportunity to bring non-main-cast characters into the spotlight or even just representing a stage of growth in-series. For an example to count, the birthday, or the celebration of the birthday (they are not necessarily the same thing), has to at least be a significant part of the episode it appears in.

A Super-Trope to Forgotten Birthday, Surprise Party, Ironic Birthday, Dangerous 16th Birthday, and Birthday Beginning. Unfortunately, characters who are Birthday Haters tend to experience them at least once. If something bad happens to the guest of honor during the episode, then it's A Birthday, Not a Break. The Ageless Birthday Episode is a special subtype in which the age of the character having the birthday is never mentioned, perhaps because the character in question is technically Not Allowed to Grow Up, but the writers wanted to do this plot anyway.

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Example subpages:

• Anime & Manga
• Live-Action TV
• Western Animation

Other examples:

Advertising

• MetLife: One ad takes place on Linus' birthday. Lucy tries to persuade him to use his birthday money on a big party, but Linus wants to put it into a mutual fund. Lucy gets hot with anger until she hears about the potential for Linus to make more money.

Art

• Some paintings by Terry Ananny, like Garden Party, Joyful Celebration, and A Lovely Fall Day depict birthday parties, as evidenced by the cake with candles on top, gifts, party hats, and balloons

Asian Animation

• Adit & Sopo Jarwo has "Kejutan Buat Jarwo" (lit. "Surprise for Jarwo"), where Adit finds out about Jarwo's birthdate through Jarwo's dropped ID card and gets the others to make a surprise for Jarwo.
• Motu Patlu has at least two. One episode is about Patlu and the others trying to give Motu a Surprise Party, while the other is about John the Don inviting everyone to his birthday party.
• Say Hi to Pencil! has an episode cleverly titled "Pink's Birthday", where Red gets help from Yellow to bake a birthday cake for Pink.
• Simple Samosa has an episode called "Jalebi's Birthday". In this episode, it's... well, Jalebi's birthday, but her friends Samosa, Dhokla, and Vada all refuse to acknowledge her birthday for some reason, even when she asks if they have anything to say besides "thank you" when she helps Samosa put together his radio, Dhokla untangle himself from some lights, and Vada get off of a non-working escalator. Turns out the entire thing was a set-up leading to a surprise party for Jalebi, and all the things she fixed for her friends play a part in the birthday somehow - the radio is used to play "Happy Birthday to You", the lights are decorations for the party, and the escalator Vada got stuck on is located in the Masala Mall, where the party takes place.
• Tobot Galaxy Detectives: Episode 7 is "Mrs. James' Birthday", in which the King family invite Mrs. James over to their house for dinner, since her family lives far away. However, her son-in-law and granddaughter are coming to visit on a plane as a surprise. Only, Team Mayhem are causing problems at the airport and keeping their plane from landing, so Tyler has to get rid of them.
• Upin & Ipin: The sixth season episode "Mystery Day" takes place on the titular twins' birthday. While they are upset about Ros and Opah apparently not remembering their birthday, their friends ask them to find a package (which actually contains their birthday cake) to distract them from the preparation of a surprise party.

Comic Books

• In one issue of the Beetlejuice comics run, the title spook is on the hunt for a "Barfie" doll to give Lydia as a birthday gift. After a series of shenanigans, he ends up giving her a Voodoo Doll of himself instead. She loves it.
• Some of Elongated Man's appearances were birthday episodes, either in his own stories or in issues of Justice League of America. Knowing how much Ralph Dibny loved a good mystery, his wife Susan would usually craft an elaborate mystery for him to solve as a birthday gift, often getting the Justice League in on the action.
• Fantastic Four #574 centered on a birthday party for Franklin Richards, but also featured some serious Foreshadowing as an adult Franklin from the future warns Val of upcoming events, including the cryptic message, "All hope lies in Doom."
• Supergirl:
  • In Action Comics #270, Supergirl turns sixteen, and she is thrown a surprise party by her cousin Superman (who baked a giant birthday cake), Batman, Robin, and several more friends.
  • In Supergirl Volume 2 #20, Superman, the Justice League of America and the Teen Titans celebrate Kara's arrival’s anniversary.
• Robin: Tim gets an issue dedicated to his sixteenth birthday, where his step-mom gets together a surprise party with his father, Steph and Ives when she realizes Tim doesn't realize it is his birthday.
• Wonder Woman:
  • Wonder Woman (1942): Etta is trying to get a sore tooth dealt with by a dentist so she can get to her own birthday celebration in "Etta Candy and Her Holliday Girls: The Toothache". She is quite annoyed that she has to deal with some mobsters trying to pull a con on her way, and sprints off as soon as the police arrive to pick up the criminals she's thoroughly beaten.
  • Sensation Comics Featuring Wonder Woman: In "Wonder World" a fifteen year old Diana escapes from Paradise Island and befriends a girl named Riley whose at the pier with her friends to celebrate her birthday, but had gone beneath the pier to cry for a bit and get it out of her system because some incredibly rude boys were hogging her favorite arcade game. Diana sticks with Riley for the rest of the evening.
• The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy had "Time Waits For No Mandy," where it's Mandy's birthday but she's ageist. She coerces Father Time into going on a permanent vacation so time will stand still and she won't have any more birthdays.
• Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics) had two birthday issues, both with Sonic as the birthday boy:
  • Issue #67 had Sonic celebrating it following his return from hunting down Naugus. It gets ruined when meteors fall on Mobotropolis.
  • Issue #160 has Sonic celebrating his next birthday, but since he disappeared into space for a year, they aren't sure how old he's supposed to be.
• A special X-Men publication of Obnoxio the Clown had Obnoxio hired to entertain at Kitty Pryde's birthday, only a villain named Eye Scream has ideas to ruin it.
• Dastardly & Muttley in Their Flying Machines: "Command Performance" (Fun-In #6) has it being Muttley's birthday and the other squadron members give him a bunch of medals. When an efficiency expert notices this and notes an evaluation report, he assigns Muttley command of Vulture Squadron.

Fan Works

• Advice and Trust: Chapter 9 has Asuka celebrating her fifteenth birthday. After her birthday party, Shinji and Asuka retired to their bedroom to have celebratory sex.
• Birthday Breakfast is a fanfic of The Loud House that involves Lincoln making pancakes for the twins' sixth birthday. When they fight, he feels like a failure but they assure him that they fight all the time and it doesn't mean they're unhappy.
• The Birthday of an Addams is a fanfiction of The Addams Family focused on Wednesday's first birthday.
• The final chapter of The Bug Princess has Lydia celebrating her 22nd birthday, on which BJ finally reveals the Grand Romantic Gesture he's been setting up for the previous three chapters.
• The Calvinverse gets one in the form of the re-written version of Calvin and Hobbes III: Double Trouble, which takes place before and during Calvin's birthday. It's especially significant here because it's Calvin's first birthday since he and his friends got rid of the Floating Timeline in an earlier story.
• The Child of Love: In chapter 4 Asuka's fifteenth birthday comes up and Misato holds a birthday party. After the party Asuka finds Shinji's gift (an engagement ring) and it is right then when she realizes she loves him.
• Danganronpa Gaiden Series:
  • "Happy Birthday, Makoto!" has Kyoko giving a gift to Makoto during their time in the Future Foundation.
  • "Komaru’s First Post-Tragedy Birthday!" has Makoto trying to set up the perfect birthday party for Komaru.
  • "What Do I Get For Byakuya's Birthday?" has Aoi trying to figure out what to give to Byakuya for his birthday.
  • "Kiki Naegi’s First Birthday!", "A Birthday in Novoselic!", and "Mokubo’s First Words!" has Kiki celebrating her first, sixth, and eighth birthdays respectively.
• Chapter 18 of the Doki Doki Literature Club Loops serves as this, with the Dokis celebrating the one-year anniversary of their game as 'the closest thing we have to a birthday.'
• Chapter 20 of Fire Emblem: Three Houses: Fifth Path focuses on Byleth's birthday. Appropriately, the Chapter's title is "Byleth's Birthday."
• For the Glory of Irk:
  • Chapter 24 features Dib's 21st birthday. His stepmother insists on throwing him a party, with him inviting all the other main characters to it. Hilarity Ensues from the chaos of putting them all in the same place, which Dib finds himself surprisingly enjoying.
  • Chapter 65, having jumped ahead a year, sees another birthday party for Dib, which doubles as a welcome party for him having just moved to Capital Planet.
• The Ghost of Ochs:
  • Chapter 23 takes place on Linhardt's seventeenth birthday, just before the Black Eagles explore the Sealed Forest.
  • Chapter 36, which falls on Monica's nineteenth birthday, happens after the Eagles return from defending Remire Village.
• Ghosts of Evangelion: An episode is set on Asuka's eighteenth birthday in 2019. It starts out with Asuka having a nightmare and wandering around at the night, followed by Shinji. When they come back home, her birthday party is ready, to Asuka's shock (no one had thought of celebrating her birthday before), and the chapter concludes with her eating cake.
• Heart of Gold (Cardcaptor Sakura): The first chapter is set on Sakura's fifteenth birthday.
• HERZ: A good chunk of chapter 4 is about Shinji and Asuka's daughter Akiko's fifth birthday. Her birthday is one of the rare times when the Ikari family gathers.
• Higher Learning: This story has two episodes: chapter 1 begins with Shinji making a special meal to celebrate his birthday; and in chapter 43 it's Asuka's sixteenth birthday and the cast gathers to throw a party and cheer her up.
• If Them's the Rules has Tom and Harry celebrating Tom's birthday. On that day Harry receives a letter from Melania Black warning him about her husband.
• The Loud House fanfic Lincoln's Memories:
  • "Lincoln's Seventh Birthday" has Lincoln having his seventh birthday and being a magician's assistant.
  • In "Lincoln's Sixth Birthday", Lincoln goes to the bowling alley for his sixth birthday.
  • Downplayed for "The Blarney Suit", where Liam's third birthday kicks off the plot.
• Ma Fille:
  • "Birthday Girl", where Katrina's first birthday is celebrated.
  • In "Birthday Boy", Joe celebrates his thirty-fourth birthday.
• The first chapter of the Turning Red fic Maple Sugar Pretty Cure takes place on Mei's fifteenth birthday.
• Mega Man Reawakened has Arc 4, chapter 3, which is all about a birthday party for Robert.
• Chapter 11 of Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Duo centers on the group celebrating Lucia's fifteenth birthday.
• The Omnitrix Hero: The sixth chapter, "Birthday Bash", has Flash, Trixie, and the Rainbooms all attending Flurry Heart's first birthday. It is the first true Breather Episode of the story, with no real antagonist besides an Equestrian magic-possessed bubble machine.
• Pokémon Reset Bloodlines has a sidestory titled "Happy Birthday, Ash!", taking place during Ash's 15th birthday in the new timeline.
• Pretty Cure: Magic of the Rainbow: "Think Pink" takes place on Tsubomi's birthday.
• The Second Try: In chapter 8 Shinji surprises Asuka announcing he has kept track of time and in two weeks it will be one year since Aki's birthday. Asuka right away decides they need to throw a party and take photos of her first birthday to torture her within a few years.
  • Aki-chan's Life: In the first chapter of the sequel Shinji and Asuka held a party for Aki's fourth birthday. They invited their friends and co-workers, telling them that they were celebrating their victory about SEELE. So when they introduce their four-year-old daughter - whom no one knew they had - hilarity ensues.
• The second chapter of Skyhold Academy Yearbook: Where the Sky is Held sees Skyhold Academy celebrating Evvy's birthday, which is also the anniversary of her arrival there. Dorian marks the occasion with a Friendship Song - specifically, Queen's "You Make Me Live."
• Snippets of Sirin Shariac's life features multiple. "First Birthday" and "Little sister's birthday" are set on Sirin's and Kiana's birthdays respectively and were even released on the characters' actual birthdays. "Vacation" features Sirin and Bella traveling to the moon specifically to honor the latter's date of birth at her birthplace.
• Son of the Desert has the second half of the story taking place during Edward's 16th birthday, where Ed invites every Ishvalan he knows (which is a lot of people) and his friends from the military.
• The series Time Fixers: Nicktoons of the Future has the story "Birthday Wish" that centers on Yuki's birthday.
• To Hell and Back (Arrowverse) has two of them:
  • "B-Day" takes place on Ruby Arias' birthday. It's a Wham Episode that ends with Kara killing Non.
  • "For the Boy Who Has Everything" is a Breather Episode entirely dedicated to Kal-El's first ever birthday party.
• True Potential: A good chunk of Chapter 56 focuses on Naruto celebrating his fourteenth birthday alongside his loved ones.
• X-Men: The Early Years's last episode is framed by Iceman’s birthday party.

Film

• In-universe example in Nope: This is what the Show Within a Show, Gordy's Home, was filming the day that its titular chimpanzee star went berserk. The script called for a bunch of balloons to fly out of a big present, and those balloons popped under the hot studio lights, which drove an already-agitated Gordy to attack.

Literature

• One of the Alfie books is about Alfie's birthday.
• Angela Nicely: In “Pony Party!”, Tiffany has her birthday (supposedly turning six, since that’s how old Angela is) and at the party, Angela has to ride a full-sized horse while the rest of the girls are on ponies.
• Bigfoot and Littlefoot: The third book, "The Squatchicorns", is set on Boone's birthday. In it, Boone invites Hugo to his house for the celebrations, and Hugo gets to see how different human birthdays are from Bigfoot birthdays.
• In Dennis the Menace Takes the Cake, it's Mr. Wilson's birthday, and when Dennis overhears Mrs. Wilson saying she's going to make Mr. Wilson a chocolate-covered sponge cake, Dennis decides to make one for Mr. Wilson himself from a kitchen sponge.
• In the Dirty Bertie story "Worms!", Angela is turning six and plans a birthday party with a pink theme and invites Bertie. Bertie doesn't want to go as he's the only boy invited, thinks pink is a soppy colour, and doesn't like Angela, but eventually has fun when he comes as a worm.
  • In a story set in the same universe (but not exactly a Dirty Bertie book), entitled "Pony Party", Tiffany the snooty girl has a pony party for her birthday.
• Dork Diaries: Tales from a Not-So-Happy Birthday focuses on Nikki Maxwell's 15th birthday.
• Several books of The Dresden Files are on Harry's birthday, since he was born on Halloween and magical mayhem has a habit of going down on that date. Usually it's only mentioned in passing, but in Cold Days the Shock Party thrown for him by the Queens of Winter kicks off that book's action.
  • The short story "It's My Birthday Too", is about Thomas's birthday — Valentine's Day, naturally.
• Babs Bunny celebrates her birthday in Happy Birthday Babs!, a Little Golden Book based on Tiny Toon Adventures. When Buster is mowing lawns with his teeth, Hamton is baking a cake, Plucky is practicing flying, and Shirley is looking into her crystal ball, Babs thinks her friends have forgotten all about her birthday. As it turns out, they were all planning a surprise party for her.
• Harry Potter: Harry's birthday is part of every book in the series, but most especially the first book - it's on his eleventh birthday that he finally learns who he really is and gets his acceptance letter to Hogwarts. It's also the first time in his life (that he can remember) that anyone gave him a birthday cake.
• In the Little Princess book "I Want Two Birthdays", Little Princess has her birthday.
• Mary Poppins celebrates the title character's birthday in the "Full Moon" chapter. In it, Jane and Michael visit the zoo one moonlit night, where the animals throw Mary Poppins a birthday party. The children discover that whenever her birthday falls on a full moon, the animals in the zoo can all talk and interact peacefully, while humans locked inside the zoo at closing time must spend the night in the cages and/or giving smaller animals rides.
• In the Mog book "Mog's Amazing Birthday Caper", Mog has a strange dream on Debbie's eleventh birthday.
• Monster of the Month Club: The last five chapters (18-22) of book 1 serve as this, covering Rilla's thirteenth birthday and how she finally learns the truth about where the monsters are coming from.
• The Mouse Math picture book Make a Wish, Albert! is about the birthday of Albert, who is the featured character in the series.
• The first Perfectly Princess book, "Pink Princess Rules the School", mainly focuses on the main character Juliet's birthday, and the conflict of her not wanting to invite her male classmates to her party.
• Rainbow Magic:
  • The Party Fairies' books feature a few birthdays, including Kirsty's in Cherry the Cake Fairy's book, Jamie Cooper's in Grace the Glitter Fairy's book, and Charlotte's in Phoebe the Fashion Fairy's book.
  • Belle the Birthday Fairy's book takes place on Rachel's mom's birthday. And Jack Frost's.
  • The Sweet/Sugar & Spice Fairies series takes place around Kirsty's birthday.
• The Rotten Ralph book Happy Birthday, Rotten Ralph has Ralph misbehaving during his birthday and his owner Sarah attempting to quell her cat's misbehavior by threatening to not throw him a party if he continues being rotten.
• Roys Bedoys:
  • In “Be Grateful, Roys Bedoys!”, it’s Roys’s birthday (supposedly turning five since it’s his first year at school) and he has to learn to be grateful despite not getting all he wanted.
  • In “Keep Your Word, Roys Bedoys!”, it’s Ms. H’s birthday, and the kids make her a card, but Roys didn’t get to add to it because he had a haphazard schedule.
  • It’s Roys’s birthday again in “Stop Wasting Money, Roys Bedoys!”, where he wastes money while trying to save up for a bubble machine so that he can have a “bubble party”.
  • In “Let Others Shine, Roys Bedoys!”, Roys has to learn not to hog the spotlight on Loys’s birthday.
  • “Don’t Spoil Surprises, Roys Bedoys!” focuses on Wen’s friends throwing her a birthday party.
• In the Savvy books, birthdays are a big deal because the members of one extended family get their "savvies" (their personal superpowers) on their 13th birthdays.
• Sesame Street books:
  • Part of "Don't Be Shy" takes place on Snuffy's birthday. Snuffy is too shy to come out of the kitchen and open his presents, but comes out when he decides to blow out the candles on his cake.
  • "Happy Birthday, Cookie Monster!" takes place on Cookie Monster's birthday. In this book, Cookie bakes his own cake for his birthday to share with his friends, but gets carried away and eats the whole thing after tasting it, feeling guilty afterwards. Fortunately for him, Big Bird, Grover, Ernie and Bert each brought their own cakes as presents.
  • "When is My Birthday?" takes place on the sixth birthday of Daisy, Elmo's older sister. Elmo becomes jealous of the attention that Daisy receives and wishes it were his birthday. At the end of the book, he finds out from Daisy that his birthday is just one week after hers.
  • "The Case of The Missing Duckie" combines this with Mystery Episode; Ernie's Rubber Duckie goes missing on the day of his birthday just when Ernie is about to take a bath, so Ernie enlists the help of Sherlock Hemlock to find it. In the end, it is revealed that Cookie Monster borrowed Rubber Duckie to use as a decoration for Ernie's birthday cake.
• Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing: In the fifth chapter, "The Birthday Bash", the Hatcher family celebrates the third birthday of Farley, better known as Fudge. The party guests are Fudge's friends; Ralph, a boy who eats until he throws up, Jennie, a girl who bites people and wets her pants, and Sam, a boy who cries a lot and is afraid of nearly everything.
• Thomas & Friends:
  • In "Happy Birthday, Thomas!", it's Thomas The Tank Engine's birthday and he he decides not to work, so Sir Topham Hatt says that he has to run on his branchline. At the end of the book, Thomas is thrown a Surprise Party.
  • "Best Birthday Ever!" is a book that ties in with Thomas' 75th Anniversary. In this book, it's Thomas' birthday, and Percy, Emily, and Rebecca all plan a Surprise Party for him, with Percy collecting the cake, Emily collecting the Brass Band, and Rebecca collecting the party guests. However, a mix-up in the schedule sends the engines to the wrong destinations, and they pick up the wrong things as a result. Fortunately for them, Harold the Helicopter and even Thomas himself give them a helping hand.
• Eeyore has a birthday in the Winnie the Pooh story "Eeyore Has a Birthday and Gets Two Presents."
• The Witch Family has one chapter focusing on Hannah turning six again since witch children can choose to stop aging (and Hannah did).
• In The Worst Thing About My Sister, Marty reluctantly attends Alicia's birthday party.

Music

• SiIvaGunner: On the anniversaries of running jokes of the channel, there will be a day where most if not all rips uploaded use said joke.
  • On 13 September, rips referencing Super Mario Bros. were uploaded, marking the 31st anniversary of the original game. Many of these were rips of the Slider theme, one of SiIva's most popular early videos.
  • 15 September, the anniversary of Undertale, was dedicated almost entirely to Mother rips, referencing Game Theory's infamous "Sans is Ness" video, until the last hour when about 40 Undertale rips were uploaded.
  • The first rip referencing mm2wood.mid was uploaded on 21 June 2016, and a year later Woodman took over the channel for the day. This culminated in Gallery - Mega Man Legacy Collection, showcasing fanart of Woodman, and the Wood Man Fusion Collab.
  • For the birthday of each member of μ's, several rips of Love Live! School idol festival are uploaded as '[CHARACTER] Mixes', aside from exceptional circumstances. In addition, a mashup of Snow Halation performed by a specific member of the group is almost always uploaded on their birthday.
• Was mir behagt, ist nur die muntre Jagd was composed by Johann Sebastian Bach as a birthday gift for a friend of his employer.
• The Beatles had, naturally, "Birthday." And during the solo days, George had "It's Johnny's Birthday," for John Lennon's birthday.

Professional Wrestling

• Monday Night Raw: With the nature of the business, the celebration of a wrestler's birthday is sure to be the genesis of a wrestling feud or confrontation:
  • August 14, 2014 Raw was the celebration of Hulk Hogan's 61st birthday. Many of his friends (and past foes) showed up to celebrate, as did "Mean" Gene Okerlund. Things were going to form until Brock Lesnar showed up to disrupt the festivities, although he simply just stared at several of the legends before walking off.
  • The February 25, 2019 episode of Raw was supposed to be a celebration of Ric Flair's 70th birthday ... only for the reveal that the Nature Boy was brutally beaten up (on the way to the gala) by Batista.

Puppet Shows

• The Adventures of Timmy the Tooth has "Operation: Secret Birthday Surprise". In this episode, Timmy prepares for his birthday party as his friends prepare a surprise for him in secret. Upon visiting Mr. Wisdom, Timmy is shown what Flossmore Valley would be like if he was not around.
• Bananas in Pyjamas: In the episode week, "Bananas' Birthday", the Teddies plan to throw the Bananas a Surprise Party. Sure enough, B1 and B2 wonder why they're acting so weird and decide to throw them their own surprise party, unbeknownst to the Teddies who are too busy trying to manage the party planning chaos.
• Barney & Friends: Barney celebrates his 200 millionth birthday in the first season episode "Happy Birthday Barney!" which includes a big party with all of his friends, of course including the viewer.
  • He later celebrates his birthday again in the eighth season episode, "It's Your Birthday, Barney!"
  • In the second season, Baby Bop celebrates her third birthday in "Look at me, I'm 3!"
  • Robert celebrates his birthday in "Birthday Olé" from season six.
  • BJ's birthday is celebrated in the 1996-1998 stage show "Barney's Big Surprise" (which was released to VHS in 1998).
• Bear in the Big Blue House celebrates four birthdays: Bear in "Bear's Birthday Bash", Tutter in "Mouse Party" (also adapted into a live stage show), Ojo in "You Never Know", and Grandma Flutter in "Grandma Flutter's 100th Birthday".
• In the Between the Lions episode, "You Can't Catch Me!", it's Leona's birthday, and Lionel gives her a book of The Gingerbread Man as a birthday present. Leona gets heartbroken when the story ends with the titular character being eaten, and part of the party ends up playing out like a funeral in the Gingerbread Man's memory, with the lions even singing a song to say goodbye to him.
• In the Big Bag episode, "The Birthday Blah", it's Sophie's birthday, and Chelli promises to give Sophie the biggest birthday party ever at 5:00. At first, he tries to handle setting up the party by himself, but soon finds out that he needs help from his friends.
• Dinosaurs:
  • Baby celebrates his first birthday in "Switched at Birth". During this episode, the Sinclairs discover evidence that their baby may have been switched with another baby while still an egg.
  • Charlene celebrates her birthday in "Getting to Know You". With Fran having the flu, Earl throws Charlene a surprise birthday party, where he doesn't invite any of her friends, but does invite his friends from work, the guests play poker and plan to watch a video of wrestling bloopers, and give Charlene questionable birthday gifts, while Fran ends up making Charlene a sweater rather than buy her a specific one she had wanted.
  • Baby celebrates his second birthday in "Terrible Twos", wherein he enters the terrible twos and his behavior becomes horrendous. Desperate times require desperate measures, and the Sinclairs enlist the aid of "The Babysitter" to exorcise Baby's demons. When neither the exorcist nor doctors can cure Baby, Robbie hatches a plan for the family to fool Baby into believing he's three.
• Fraggle Rock has several such episodes. The birthdays celebrated in those episodes were Boober ("Marooned"), Sprocket ("Wembley's Egg"), Gobo ("Space Frog Follies"), and both Ma Gorg and Red in "Mirror, Mirror".
• Giggle And Hoot had a birthday special to celebrate its tenth anniversary in 2019.
• The first episode of Little Mermaid's Island revolves around Sebastian's birthday. He thinks that everyone has forgotten about it.
• Land O'Hands: The episode "Birthday Memories" is set on Bungle's birthday. It's mainly a Clip Show where Bungle's family reminisces about the events of various episodes.
• The Muppet Show celebrates Kermit's birthday in the season 4 episode guest-starring Linda Lavin, but Kermit later reveals that his birthday is not until four months.
• The Noddy Shop had "The Birthday Party", which centered around the kids and toys planning a birthday party for Noah, the owner of NODDY's.
• Sesame Street:
  • Sesame Street had three birthday episodes for Linda:
    • In episode #914 (season 7), her father from Minnesota makes a surprise visit.
    • A season later in episode #930 (season 8), Big Bird makes the mistake of buying a a phonograph and speaker as a gift, as everybody reminds him that Linda is deaf. To everyone's surprise, she shows how she can still enjoy it by feeling the vibrations of the music through the speaker.
    • In episode #3806 (season 30), Bob teaches everyone how to sign "Happy Birthday to You". Snuffy hurts his snuffle at one point, but is still able to continue practicing with the others. Later, Linda invites Snuffy to her dinner with Bob.
  • Big Bird's birthday was the focus of a PBS pledge drive special in 1991.
  • In one segment, Ernie won't let Bert into the apartment. At first, Bert is sad, but then he thinks Ernie might be hiding something, which makes him mad. He demands to be let in and finds that Ernie has thrown him a Surprise Party, which makes him happy. Bert later celebrates his birthday again in episode #4034 (season 34).
  • Oscar celebrates his birthday twice: first in episode #7 (season 1) and again in episode #3866 (season 31).
  • Gordon and Susan celebrate Miles' first birthday in episode #2226 (season 18) from 1986.
  • Telly celebrates his birthday three times: in episode #2084 (season 16), again in episode #2499 (season 20), and the third time in episode #3363 (season 26). He also throws a Surprise Party for his doll, Freddy, in episode #3361.
  • Slimey celebrates his birthday three times: In episode #2454 (season 19), Telly uses Mumford's magic tools to make a birthday gift for the worm, causing the street to fill up with beach balls. Then, in episode #3200 (season 25), he decides to share his birthday with a worm clown, who's feeling sad that he's never had one before due to his busy schedule. The third time in episode #3758 (season 29), he celebrates his birthday while in space, and everyone on the street tries to contact him.
  • Biff turns 40 in episode #3387 (season 26) and is down in the dumps because he feels he is growing too old. Luckily, his niece Roxie Marie, Elmo, Gina, and the kids, throw him a birthday party to cheer him up.
  • Benny Rabbit's birthday is celebrated in episode #3409 (season 27).
  • Snuffy celebrates his birthday twice: once in episode #333 (season 3) and again in #3421 (season 27).
  • Baby Bear celebrates his birthday three times: In episode #3539 (season 28), he hesitates to invite his "frenemy" Goldilocks, in fear that she might cause damage (as she usually does). His birthday is celebrated again in the 32nd season premiere (#3916) in which Telly Monster, after being unable to decide what to give his best friend, presents him with a porridge cake. Finally, in episode #4170 (season 39), Baby Bear tries to get his baby sister Curly from ruining his special chocolate-porridge cake.
  • Gabi gets the flu on her birthday in episode #3442 (season 27) from 1996.
  • Ruthie celebrates her birthday in episode #3774 (season 29).
  • Zoe throws her pet rock, Rocco, a birthday party in episode #4126 (season 37).
  • Elmo celebrates Dorothy's birthday in the Elmo's World segment entirely about birthdays.
  • In Episode 0711 (Season 6), S.A.M. the Robot celebrates his "Wiring Day", the day that commemorates the first time he was wired up and activated. At the party, S.A.M. serves a stainless steel cake with aluminum icing, the guests are various machines (including a fan, radio, washing machine, and toaster), and he plays a party game called Pin the Tail on the Toaster.
• The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss:
  • In "The Birthday Moose", it's Thidwick's birthday, and Thidwick is excited about the Birthday Bird taking him and his friends sharing the same birthday, Morton the Elephant Bird, Mr. Knox, Fox in Socks, and Fiona Phish, to Katroo for a huge party. When Thidwick finds out that the Birthday Bird is unable to make it this year, he decides to take him and his friends to Katroo himself, disguised as the Birthday Bird.
  • In "The Cat in the Hat's Big Birthday Surprise", it's Terrence McBird's birthday, and he thinks his friends have forgotten. They're really planning his surprise party. In the Wubbulous World, Felix Finkledooper celebrates an extra-special 8th birthday with the 8th Birthday Glurk, and Princess Tizz is sad because all of her birthday presents are too rare and precious to play with.

Radio

• Doctoberfest on The Brewing Network's The Session. It was even planned as a surprise.
• A two-part topic of Story Interludes from New Dynamic English centers around Max's son John's eighth birthday party. He had to prepare pizza, ice cream, cake decorations, and rent some movies, making Max quite tired.

Video Games

• The Bugs Bunny Birthday Blowout is set on Bugs Bunny's 50th birthday. Bugs is invited to a party by his fanclub as a guest of honor, but his Looney Tunes co-stars get word of the party and go out of their way to keep Bugs from going to it out of jealousy. Bugs is then forced to endure several levels of platforming hazards, enemies and then fight each of the Looney Tunes to make it to his party.
• Disgaea 5 has one for Laharl from the first game. Demons normally don't care about their birthdays, but angels do, so Flonne and Sicily plan a Surprise Party and get Etna to distract him until they finish setting up.
• Sonic Generations sets up Sonic attending his own birthday party, but suddenly the Time Eater appears and sends everyone into a Time Crash, and Sonic, appropriately enough, visits places from past games to save the day.
• Super Mario Bros.:
  • New Super Mario Bros. Wii takes place on Princess Peach's birthday. She ends up getting kidnapped by the Koopalings and Bowser Jr. disguised inside a two-layer birthday cake.
  • Mario Party 4: The main story centers around the birthday of the character you choose.
• Winnie the Pooh's Rumbly Tumbly Adventure is a game centered around the birthdays of the Hundred Acre Wood denizens. Those being Piglet, Roo, Tigger, Eeyore, and even Pooh himself.

Visual Novels

• Aquarium: Aqua's birthday falls on August 8th^note As a vtuber Aqua's birthday is on December 1st, August 8th is the day of her debut, which happens to clash with an noble tea party. When Theo wants to make Aqua a present, Fubuki tells him that it can't be that important, and Aqua lets them go. Theo is so unsatisfied he makes her a Love Confession at night.
• Melody gives Amy’s birthday dinner. The dinner and the buildup to it hold the keys to Amy’s romantic path.
• The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog is set during Amy Rose's birthday, in which she and her friends set up a murder mystery party game on board a train which turns out to be a Badnik along with the MC who was starting their first day as a train employee.

Web Animation

• Hello Kitty and Friends Supercute Adventures:
  • Several, given the number of characters. Kuromi's also double as Halloween Episodes, as her birthday is Halloween.
  • Badtz-Maru's birthday is April 1st, and he loves to spend it doing April Fool's pranks. The others prank him by making him believe it's already April 2nd, leading him to a surprise party.
• The Homestar Runner toon, "In Search of the Yello Dello" takes place on Marzipan's birthday and Homestar wants to give her the Yello Dello as a birthday present.
• Averted in the first episode of DSBT InsaniT, much to Bear's confusion.
• Lobo (Webseries): The "Bustin' Out Of Oblivion" episodes has Slaz celebrating his cellmate and boyfriend Major Snake's birthday.
• The Most Popular Girls in School: The first episode of Keeping Up with the Van Burens involves Cameron's 20th birthday.
• Super Mario 64 Bloopers:
  • Supermarioglitchy4's Super Mario 64 Bloopers has "Birthday Freakout". It is Enzo's birthday in this blooper, but Mario ends up ruining it, thus causing Enzo to be driven to killing the former.
  • Another blooper, made by a different SM64 machinimist called rainbowyoshismbx, showed R.Y.S.'s birthday, but when his friend Andrea kicks Mario out of the castle, the latter lands into a pipe, entering R.Y.S.'s body.
• Minilife TV: In the Multi-Part Episode "Snowball's Birthday", Chris and Ian plan a surprise party for Snowball's first birthday, but Snowball accidentally gets teleported to an Alternate Universe when Jack tries to repair Chip.

Web Original

• Whateley Universe: In Ayla and the Birthday Brawl, which involves the setup and execution of Ayla's birthday party, and the titular brawl that happens during the party.

Webcomics

• Rowan has his first birthday in Boy and Dog, which features a parody of "leveling up" like in video games.
• After Mye's postcognition allows her to guess at when Charby's birthday was she and the other cabinmates put together a surprise party for him, even managing to prevent Menu from getting to the meal before they're able to start in Charby the Vampirate.
• Chapter 14 of Cobweb and Stripes takes place on Lydia's 19th birthday.
• A whole arc was dedicated to Grace's birthday in El Goonish Shive, with Character Development for most of the main cast.
• The Handbook of Heroes: Thief gets two, both posted on January 22nd, her official birthday. The first, "Throw Anything", she spent alone because she thought the title feat meant she could throw parties. The second, "Party Girl", is with her teammates.
• This Megaman Sprite Comic strip has Zero wanting to give Snake Man a present with help from Megaman. Predictably, this doesn't end well.
• Super Brothers takes place on Peach's birthday, which the residents are celebrating.

Web Videos

• One Cream Heroes short takes place on Nana's birthday. It's presented as the cats reacting to party hats until the very end where the subtitles wish Nana a happy birthday.
• Economy Watch: Episode 22, "CAKE", is a birthday episode and follows David's birthday as he discusses the CAKE cryptocurrency from Pancake Swap.
• Limited Life SMP: Downplayed. Since the Day 6 episode was released on Martyn's birthday, he spends the session building a birthday party site and inviting others on the server to said party… which is rigged with TNT so that he can try to get some life-time back. In the end, no one gets any life-time after the Bad Boys faction crashes the party by attempting to rain Death from Above, and by some miracle, no one dies from this.
• The Lizzie Bennet Diaries:
  • One episode is shot during Lydia's birthday party. She turns 21. Lizzie says her younger sister is on a partying streak and that she apparently doesn't need sleep. In another episode, Lizzie gives Lydia presents and they have an argument, because Lydia thinks Lizzie judges her and that she's harsh and stuck-up.
  • One episode very close to the end of the webseries has Lizzie and her best friend Charlotte mark their 25th birthdays. They were born on the very same day.
• Party Crashers:
  • Throughout 2022, all four members played a round of Mario Party together on each other's birthdays, with Vernias' on February 21, Nick's on August 3, Brent's on September 15, and Sophist's on September 20. Brent manages to win 3 out of the 4 games, with the one he didn't win (Sophist's) still counting as a victory, as Nick and Sophist were trying to make him end in last place.
  • In "I Made a Mario Party Challenge for my Birthday..., Nick hosts a birthday session where the group compete to get the first Star on every board. Unlike the previous year, Nick manages to win, but he has to share his victory with Vernias due to winning the same amount of maps as the former with two maps each.
• Stampy's Lovely World: Fizzy set one up for Stampy in his debut episode, Episode 393, "Fizzy Elephant". Played with in that he did a Celebration Miscalculation and got the date wrong, but they have the party anyway.
• SuperMarioLogan:
  • Bowser Junior has had five of these episodes: "Bowser Junior's Birthday Cake", "Bowser Junior's 6th Birthday", "Bowser Junior's 7th Birthday!", "Bowser Junior's 8th Birthday!", and "Bowser Junior's 9th Birthday!"
  • In "Chef Pee Pee's Birthday", Chef Pee Pee has a crappy birthday thanks to Bowser, Junior, and his deadbeat father. In particular, Bowser gave him a spatula, Junior gave him The Ugly Red Train (and later took it back), and his father was happy he didn't have to pay him any child support. Jackie Chu later turns things around for him by giving him a shirt with his name on it and informing him he will also be getting an iPad in the mail. Jackie Chu also invites Chef Pee Pee to help him name his pregnant wife's upcoming child.
  • Chef Pee Pee celebrates his birthday again in "Chef Pee Pee's Birthday Surprise!". When Junior overhears how upset Chef Pee Pee is (due to having to clean up both Chompy's poop and Junior's pee), he decides to throw him a Thomas & Friends-themed party with the help of his friends. To keep it a surprise, he locks Chef Pee Pee in his closet. To say the least, Chef Pee Pee goes through an emotional rollercoaster at his party.
  • "Chef Poo Poo's Kitchen Disaster!" takes place during Bowser's Mom's 200th birthday.
  • "Cody's Birthday!" has Cody revealing his birthday is on February 29th, which falls once every four years, and telling Junior and Joseph that he's 8 years old but technically due to the laws of time, actually two years old. However, this proves to be a big mistake for him, as Junior and Joseph go far to make a baby-themed birthday party for him and pretend that he's a baby himself.
  • Jeffy celebrates his 12th birthday in "Jeffy's Birthday!", wherein he wants to go to Disney World to see Mickey Mouse. Because Mario doesn't have the money to go to Disney World, he decides to spend Jeffy's birthday at Chuck E. Cheese's, seeing as they also have a mouse for a mascot, hoping Jeffy won't know the difference. He also gets Chef Pee Pee to make a pencil cake for Jeffy and invite Junior, Joseph, and Cody.
  • Jeffy celebrates his 13th birthday in "Jeffy's Birthday Wish!", which happens on the same day as the solar eclipse. Jeffy makes a wish that his birthday would last forever, which causes the solar eclipse to get stuck. It is also revealed in that episode that Hansel the Hobo and Brooklyn T. Guy also have the same birthday as Jeffy.

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