Not-So-Forgotten Birthday

A major character is sure everybody's forgotten their birthday (or perhaps a similar occasion) and wanders around in an angry funk until surprise! They not only remembered it, they threw a Surprise Party!

The instigating factors in this plot are often that the character who is having a birthday often never actually comes out and says that it is their birthday, ("Hey, guess what day it is?" or "Isn't today a special day?") and the other characters further complicate by answering ambiguously. ("Seems like any other day to me.")

These sorts of plots are fueled by Poor Communication Kills and often have shades of Idiot Plot because they could be resolved by one of two simple actions. Main Character: "Hey, it's my birthday!" or Supporting Character: "Happy Birthday, [character]!" then saying they simply hadn't heard anything about a party yet. However, then there wouldn't be much episode to be had.

A subtrope of Birthday Episode. May overlap with The Complainer Is Always Wrong. For the version about the birthday of a marriage (that is, a wedding anniversary), see Forgotten Anniversary.

If the birthday is truly forgotten, or if nobody cares about it, it may lead to One-Person Birthday Party. Contrast Ironic Birthday, when the birthday character is stressed or depressed about something other than their surprise party. Missing Your Own Party may happen if no one ensures the celebrated character actually comes to the location.

---

Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Assassination Classroom: Due to the events of the athletic festival and the second mid-term exams, the students forget about Irina's birthday. To make it up to her, they secretly arrange for Karasuma to present her with a birthday gift. The plan backfires thanks to Karasuma's blunt insensitivity towards her feelings, setting the stage for the "Reaper" to manipulate her into betraying the class.
• Episode 2 of Classicaloid is this for the protagonist, Kanae. In this series it results in an unleashing of the musical magic that is Mujik (and in this instance, giving Motes an Estrogen Brigade). Also, there's boob cake alongside Beethes' usual gyoza.
• Dr. STONE: In chapter 55, Gen manages to calculate Senku's birthday from an offhand comment and organizes the village to celebrate. Everyone has been petrified for three thousand years, so Senku was the only one paying attention to the exact date. He's moved and impressed that Gen figured it out. Even better, it was already a holiday for the village. The village was founded by Senku's father three thousand years ago, and he made his son's birthday a holiday.
• Hayate the Combat Butler: Hayate struggles to pull this off with the extra impetus that the place that the birthday girl, Ayumu, is trying to convince him to admit that he knows is where they're planning to hold the party, so Hayate has to get her to vacate the premises first. Nagi then manages to call her back for the actual party.
• IGPX: Occurs completely by the book in an early episode to Amy, who has had workaholic parents her entire life and only recently made friends with the members of the team. In something of a subversion, her (absent) parents actually do forget her birthday.
• A variant in chapter 12 of Maka-Maka: Nene assumes that Jun forgot her birthday all day long, but the latter finally calls her up late at night when she's finally not so busy. Cue Tears of Joy from the former after Jun gives her a heartfelt speech.
• My-HiME episode 10. Made somewhat more surprising for the audience (and thus less Anvilicious) by not revealing what exactly Mai is upset about until the very end.
• In Rosario + Vampire, when Tsukune's birthday was coming up, and he wanted to ask Moka to spend the day with him. At the same time, he was disappointed that she didn't seem to remember it herself. After some misunderstandings and a close call with the Monster of the Week, he woke up in the hospital on his birthday, for Moka to reveal that she hadn't forgotten and to give him his present... and a Love Confession!
• Inverted in Rurouni Kenshin. Kenshin believed he had forgotten Kaoru's birthday when she was actually expecting him to propose during a holiday that served for the purpose.
• Sailor Moon:
  • Played for Drama in R when Chibiusa flashes back to a memory of her birthday passing ignored and uncelebrated because her parents, the king and queen, are away on government business. Wiseman draws out this memory and uses it to help convince Chibiusa that she is unloved, bringing about her transformation into Black Lady. In the "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight that follows, Sailor Moon tries to draw out the rest of the memory - the Sailor Senshi holding a surprise party for her the day after her birthday so that her parents could be there. However, Wiseman convinces Black Lady that this is a lie, and it takes some extra work on Sailor Moon's part to get through to Chibiusa.
  • An episode of S features Usagi thinking all her friends forgot her birthday, including her boyfriend Mamoru. It later turns out her friends were throwing her a surprise party and they help her realize that Mamoru didn't forget her birthday; he didn't even know when her birthday was because she never told him.
• School Rumble. The class celebrates Tenma's birthday but they don't know Harima was born a day after. Yakumo is the only one who remembered and even gave him a present.
• Sgt. Frog: Keroro does this to Natsumi in one episode, while Fuyuki insists that Natsumi wouldn't enjoy it. Much to his chagrin, he finds his sister not only has a good time at the party, but completely fell for the ploy.
• Unluckily, in Tamako Market Tamako's birthday falls on 31st of December. In the first episode, everyone temporarily forgets they were going to Tamako's house for her birthday when Dera chokes on mochi. Tamako says something like that happens every year, because New Year's Eve is such a hectic day at the market. Apparently Mochizou has a drawer full of presents he has failed to give Tamako, though it's not clear how much is because of the obvious nervousness and how much is because New Year's Eve around the market is so busy that he never gets opportunity.

Asian Animation

• Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf: Joys of Seasons episode 93 takes place on Wolffy's birthday, but the other wolves seem to have forgotten and Wolnie pushes him out of Wolf Castle. Wolffy hears various animals singing "Happy Birthday to You!" and starts to get fed up with it, leading to Weslie pulling a prank on him using his birthday as the basis. Later, Wolffy sees the others in Wolf Castle having a party and ruins it, thinking they're having fun without him and not realizing until afterwards that the party was for him.
• In the Simple Samosa episode "Jalebi's Birthday", Jalebi is asked by Samosa, Dhokla, and Vada to help them to do various tasks, all on her birthday: Samosa needs help putting a radio together, Dhokla needs to be untangled from some lights, and Vada needs help getting off of a non-working escalator. None of them acknowledge Jalebi's birthday, even when Jalebi asks them if they have anything to say other than "thank you for helping me"; understandably, this frustrates her quite a bit. Turns out they all had a surprise party planned for her, and all of the things she helped them with were involved in the party somehow - the radio is used to play "Happy Birthday to You", the lights are party decorations, and the escalator Vada was on is located in the Masala Mall where the party takes place.

Comic Books

• Disney Ducks Comic Universe: This happens to Donald Duck in "The Duck that Never Was", a Don Rosa comic story celebrating the 60th anniversary of Donald's creation. However, the "forgotten birthday" plot is really only briefly touched upon and Donald, unlike most of the examples of the trope, does directly tell his nephews that it's his birthday when they pretend they've forgotten.
• Hellblazer issue "Forty" is dedicated to such a party. Swamp Thing shows up furious, but tries to play along and make the best of it when he learns it wasn't John who called him and the gathering is meant to be a surprise party.
• A Little Archie Comics story presented a subversion of this. Veronica tells Archie that she thinks her dad has forgotten it's her birthday - and he has, because he's busy making plans for next week's Founder's Day celebration. Fortunately for him, Archie thinks he's planning a surprise party for Veronica and rounds up everyone to take part in it.
• Robin: Tim forgot his own birthday due to being busy as Robin, turning the small party his stepmother put together with his girlfriend into a surprise party at the last minute.
• The main story of the Rocket Raccoon comic "Storytailer" begins with Rocket throwing a One-Person Birthday Party for himself, apparently believing that none of the other Guardians of the Galaxy remembered his birthday. Groot cheers him up by giving him a Treasure Map, prompting the two of them to search for the chest. When Rocket finds and opens the chest, a birthday cake rises out, and the other Guardians emerge from the shadows to wish him a happy birthday. Rocket actually bawls from disappointment, since the chest didn't have money inside.
• In one Spider-Man comic book, Mary Jane forgets her own birthday! (Due in part to stress over being blacklisted by Jonathan Caesar.) As a result, the surprise party Peter arranges shocks even her.

Fan Works

• Subverted in Fate/Reach Out. Everybody knew that Risette was holding a big concert, but not that it was being held on her birthday. This incident convinced her that it was time to retire.
• In Gundam Agito Seed, Anthony's birthday goes uncelebrated because he'd never told anybody the date, despite figuring out what it would work out to in the Zero System. He believed that it wasn't important, and that it wouldn't really feel like his birthday due to the different date.
• Legendary Spider-Man has Jason's birthday being celebrated late due to how all the drama in the previous story kept everyone distracted.
• Toons Of A Feather: Pig starts to feel like his friends are ignoring him, and Angry Old Raisin doesn't help matters by cruelly commenting that they've likely grown sick of him. In reality, they're busy setting up a birthday party for him.
• Averted in Call Me. Lisa mentions shopping for Harry's birthday and comments that she doesn't do pretending to have forgotten because she thinks it's mean.
• In Fated, Harry thinks the other occupants of Grimmauld Place have forgotten his birthday until Ron and Hermione take him to a surprise party at the Leaky Cauldron.
• In Happy Birthday - Or Is It?, Hermione thinks Harry and Ron have forgotten her birthday until she walks into a surprise party in the Gryffindor common room.
• In The Perils of Innocence, Harry is annoyed when the doctors and staff at Esperança House appear to have forgotten his birthday, until Hermione leads him to the surprise party they organized because they wanted to do something special for his tenth birthday.
• Unexpected:
  Hermione: I thought you had all forgotten. No one said anything at all; it was just 'time for breakfast'.
  Harry: I asked them to wait for me to give you the necklace. These geniuses couldn't figure out a way to stall except to pretend to forget your birthday.
• In chapter 19 of the Harvest Moon 64 fic Wine Red no Kokoro, Karen thinks her friends and family have forgotten her birthday. In reality they were having a surprise party at the bar.
• In It's What Day Today?, Wilson goes through the whole day thinking everybody's forgotten his birthday until the end of the story when House throws him a surprise party.
  Wilson: House, I didn't think you liked surprise parties!
  House: I hate surprise parties, but it's not my birthday.
• The Girls Of My Life: When none of the Girls greet Spike after school, he starts thinking that they've forgotten about him. The reader already knows that they're busy preparing a Surprise Party.

Film

• In the early John Hughes film Sixteen Candles, the Forgotten Birthday trope is played straight - and for laughs - when Sam's sixteenth birthday has been ignored by her entire family. It didn't help that her older sister's wedding was the same weekend, but still it becomes the start of a long Humiliation Conga Line for her.
• Played with in McFarland, USA. It's subverted when Coach White really forgets the cake and is late to his daughter Julie's birthday dinner (due to an extended cross country practice), then played straight with her surprise quinceanera.
• In The Smurfs 2, the Smurfs prepare a surprise party for Smurfette, but make it look like they have forgotten about her birthday, which unfortunately sets off the whole "time-travel-to-rescue-Smurfette-from-Gargamel" plot.

Literature

• Cuphead in Carnival Chaos: Cuphead and Mugman know about Elder Kettle's birthday, but they pretend to forget about it in order to throw a surprise party. Unfortunately for them and Ms. Chalice, the antics of the carnival throw off their plans, and they only acknowledge the birthday right when Chef Saltbaker is presenting the cake to Elder Kettle.
• There was a Garfield kids' book where Garfield thought everyone forgot his birthday, but what actually happened was that Garfield himself forgot which day his birthday was on and misremembered it being one day earlier than it really was; the party happened on the correct day.
• A variant of this happens in a Geronimo Stilton book; in "Valentine's Day Disaster", Geronimo's friends and family are nowhere to be seen and he has not received anything in the mail... but just when it seems like he's given up hope in the evening, it's revealed that they threw him a Surprise Party, and shower him with gifts.
• In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry thought his friends had forgotten his birthday, but it was actually the result of an I Never Got Any Letters plot. The Dursleys forgot or ignored his birthday for real, however. (The Dursleys usually remember Harry's birthdays, if only to give him insulting presents such as Uncle Vernon's old socks.)
• The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love: In one scene Cesar the band leader has turned 38 while the band is on the road, and is hurt that nobody remembered. His brother Nestor wishes him happy birthday and apologizes for forgetting. Then Cesar opens the door to his hotel room and finds a gorgeous naked hooker inside.
• Subverted in Patricias Secret by Ruth Dagget Leinhauser. Patricia thinks her father has forgotten her birthday since he doesn't mention it. She didn't have a calendar. It was actually the following day.
• Subverted slightly in Donna Parker: Special Agent, by Marcia Martin. Her family remembers that it's her birthday, but her best friend has apparently forgotten, except that she hasn't; she's organized the surprise party.
• Played with in Reaper Man, when Windle Poons is upset no-one remembered his death-day^note On the Discworld, wizards and witches can sense when they're going to die of natural causes, which usually gives them time to get their affairs in order, and even thinks to himself "It was like having your birthday forgotten, only worse." Then he blunders into a surprise "going-away" party being held by the other wizards.
• In the Sesame Street picture book Abby's Pink Party, Elmo tries to cheer up Abby Cadabby, who is sad because she thinks everyone forgot her birthday. The book ends with her surprise party.
• The subplot of a Sweet Valley High book has Jessica pulling this trope on her best friend Lila. Everyone actually does remember that it's her birthday but they pretend that they aren't planning a party. Lila actually sees through it, but as time goes on and everyone acts more and more indifferent and clueless, she becomes increasingly and genuinely hurt and angry that her supposed friends aren't throwing a party for her and even Jessica starts to worry that they've gone too far. It all works out in the end.

Live-Action TV

• Happens to Pierce in the Community episode "Mixology Certification". The rest of the group convinces him it happened otherwise. Or so they think — during his Motive Rant in Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking", it's revealed that he wasn't as fooled as they thought.
• On A Different World, Whitley is sure everyone forgot her 21st birthday and is upset that her boyfriend Julian attended a business dinner instead of celebrating with her. (It probably would have helped if she had told Julian that it was her birthday.) Kim and Jalessa hastily plan a surprise party in the dorm while Ron and Dwayne plan to "kidnap" her. The kidnap plot fails, Whitley gets tipsy on cheap wine, and ends the night celebrating with the girls at a diner.
• In Drake & Josh, Drake forgets Josh's birthday for real. At one point Josh thinks Drake is planning a surprise party - which he is, but it's for his girlfriend, whom he's been dating for less than a week. The rest of the episode features Drake trying to make up for it, and of course things go horribly wrong, until Drake ends up planning a party for Josh.
• An early EastEnders plot deconstructed this trope, with a family planning a surprise birthday party to cheer up their depressed daughter who runs away and spends weeks living on the street because she thinks everyone forgot.
• In a later episode of Family Matters, Steve goes through a bit of a depression when everyone forgets his 20th birthday. When Carl finds out, he tries to make it up to him.
• In The Fresh Beat Band, Marina thinks everyone forgot, but she's wrong.
• In one episode of Full House, everyone really does forget about Kimmy's birthday because D.J. is so wrapped up in plans for the anniversary of her first date with Steve, which happens to be on the same day. Once D.J. realizes her error, the Tanner clan immediately pulls out all the stops to throw a party on very short notice - complete with toilet paper decorations and a hash brown "cake" pulled from the freezer. She's delighted by the party until a comment from Steve tips her off to what really happened, and is hurt by the realization, but everything gets sorted by the end of the episode.
• Subverted on Growing Pains as Maggie makes the mistake of going out of her way to tell husband Jason she doesn't want a big birthday party. It takes a while for her to grasp that Jason isn't playing dumb, he honestly believed she wanted no party and never bothered with one.
• I Love Lucy:
  • In one episode, Lucy asks Ricky to not acknowledge her birthday, then complains and storms out when he does as she says.
  • In another episode it turns out Ricky has taken precautions against this, by always keeping a box of chocolates and a birthday card hidden in the closet, which he calls his "emergency present." The card can easily be swapped out with alternates reading "Happy Anniversary", "Happy Mother's Day", "Happy Valentine's Day", "Merry Christmas", and "I'm Sorry, Dear - Can't We Please Be Friends Again?"
• In one episode for the Studio 100 series Kabouter Plop called "Plops Verjaardagstaart". Plop gets excited for his birthday since he sees a huge birthday cake in his home and decided to wait hours until his friends arrive. He later starts crying, thinking that they've all forgotten his birthday until he hears the cake raising, revealing all of his friends hiding inside the cake.
• An episode of Mako Mermaids: An H₂O Adventure involves Evie thinking Zac forgot her birthday while he avoids her to plan a surprise party. However, it's only Zac; everyone else involved with the party decides that it would be more suspicious not to at least acknowledge her birthday, and Mimmi even attempts a distraction by giving Evie her birthday present early.
• Malcolm in the Middle:
  • Happens to Dewey, of all people. He is the youngest child in the family, but he doesn't complain. Then, his parents decide to induce Lois's labour (she is pregnant at the time) so his new brother will get born on the same day. So he spends the whole day trying to clue Hal, who is oblivious, in to the fact that it is his birthday. In the end, he makes sure his father never forgets again by announcing over the loudspeaker in front of hundreds of people that Hal forgot his son's birthday. Hal quickly leaves the convention after everyone starts giving him a disgusted look.
  • Being the nice guy that he is, he makes sure it doesn't happen to his little brother. He spends all day (and Hal's credit card) to set up a birthday party just for Jamie.
• In Married... with Children, they forget Kelly's birthday until they're reminded by learning of her plans to watch a movie with her date for the occasion. Al then devises a plan to have an excuse to always forget: They'd invite Kelly to watch a movie with them, she'd refuse in favor of her date, and the Bundys would use this as an excuse to forget her birthday every year after that. The plan backfires because Kelly decides to cancel the date instead. Al and Peggy's only relief was that Bud didn't have friends to remind them of his birthday.
• This was subverted in the short-lived series Molloy. The titular character, who was about to turn thirteen, innocently thought that her father and stepmother were pretending not to remember the occasion because they were planning a surprise party, and took to bursting into different rooms in the house acting shocked and thrilled... only to find them empty. Turns out the entire family really did forget, and weren't even home because they were out taking a drive in the dad's new sports car.^note It was an especially painful jerk move because it was Molloy's first birthday since the death of her mother. To his credit, her father did remember the next day, and felt absolutely terrible, but the damage was done.
• This is the subplot in one episode of Murder, She Wrote, with Jessica and Sherriff Metzler planning a surprise birthday party for Doc Hazlett. Doc does ask them if they know it's his birthday at one point, and Jessica says that she just stopped thinking about it, because she knows he's a Birthday Hater. Doc, being Doc, agrees with this rather than admit he does want a party.
• In one episode of NCIS, Abby is in a funk because she thinks that Gibbs forgot her birthday. (The fact that he's spending the entire day working a case doesn't help.) It then turns out that he already slipped a birthday gift into her desk without her noticing, despite the fact that she's spent the entire day in her lab. Then again, this is Gibbs.
• Our Miss Brooks: Inverted in the episode "The Birthday Bag". Miss Brooks forgets her own birthday, while everybody else remembers and throws her a surprise party.
• Power Rangers:
  • An early episode of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers revolved around Zack thinking his friends forgot his birthday, only to find out they had a huge surprise party planned. It's never specified which birthday it is, though it's likely his 15th or 16th. Until the show became an unexpected success, it was planned to have the Rangers as seniors in high school and around 18 years of age. Not dictating which birthday this was allowed Saban to dial their ages back so that they were all either 16 or 17 in seasons 2 and 3 of MMPR as well as Power Rangers Zeo, only most of them being 18 or thereabouts in Power Rangers Turbo.
  • In the Power Rangers Turbo episode "Bicycle Built for the Blues", the older Rangers have to steer Justin away from both his birthday party and their plans to invite his father. They succeed, and a discouraged Justin accepts an anonymous gift - a bike outfitted with a bomb, a trap planted by one of Divatox's minions for him to find. After Justin is rescued and Ranger business is taken care of, Justin is allowed into his party, and delighted that his father made it there.
• Doubly subverted in Saved by the Bell: they actually do forget Screech's birthday, and they spend the episode making it up to him.
• In Sister, Sister, the twins' depression over the forgotten birthday, combined with a well-placed message from a rich uncle (along with a bit of the wealth), results in them being stranded in Chicago during a snowstorm, having to use their twin powers to make it home to Detroit on the back of one train ticket. And yes, they did start bawling like Lucy when the surprise was sprung.
• That '70s Show: In "Kitty's Birthday (That's Today?!)", Red and Eric really did forget Kitty's birthday, and then tried to pretend like they were planning to invoke this trope all along by giving her some cheap presents they'd bought at the gas station at 11:40 P.M.. She sees right through it, leading to:
  Red: Well, Kitty, marking the calendar is your responsibility!
  Eric: Dad. No!
• In the Made-for-TV Movie Tower of Terror, Abigail Gregory slightly overreacts to her birthday being supposedly forgotten. She kills off her sister and four other people with witchcraft, leaving their cursed ghosts trapped in limbo for sixty years. Little stuff like that. Oh, and it turns out that a surprise party had been planned all along.
• Invoked in an episode of Stuck in the Middle, in which Harley tries to prevent her family from knowing it's her birthday to guilt them into giving her the best seat in the family car. She gives up the ploy after Georgie tells her how important it is for families to share birthdays, especially since her older siblings will be leaving home soon.
• Wanda At Large: Subverted in this short-lived sitcom. The titular character doesn't want anyone celebrating her birthday. She sees the lights in her apartment go off (it's just her friends) and she calls the cops. When the cops break in, and one friend mutters "Happy birthday," her only response is to look at the cops and say "Well? Shoot!"
• In one episode of What I Like About You, Gary believes Holly's forgotten his birthday because she gives him a cheap, convenience store gift and claims the real gift is in the mail. He gives her such a hard time about it that by the time his real, pre-ordered-well-in-advance gift does arrive, she's no longer in a celebratory mood. He does apologize for assuming the worst in the end.

Newspaper Comics

• Garfield once spent his entire birthday walking around corners faking a surprise, expecting Jon and Odie waiting for him with a birthday cake, only to find nothing there. Depressed, thinking that everyone forgot, he decides to go to bed. That's when Jon and Odie spring the surprise.

Puppet Shows

• Lamb Chop's Play-Along: "Charlie Horse's Birthday" combines this with We Want Our Jerk Back!. Charlie Horse tries to be nicer to everyone in hopes that it will make them remember his birthday, but only makes them uncomfortably confused, and when the surprise party is revealed, they assure him that they love him just the way he is.
• Sesame Street: The final scene of the "Surprise" music video shows Big Bird on his birthday moping sadly through the street thinking everyone forgot it. He then enters Hooper's Store to find a giant gift box on the counter, which he unwraps to reveal his birthday cake, and everyone surprises him.
• The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss uses this plot for Terrence McBird's birthday in the episode, "The Cat in the Hat's Big Birthday Surprise". Whenever Terrence asks the Cat in the Hat to guess what day it is, as part of the Cat's plan to keep the party a surprise, he tells Terrence it's his "bird (insert activity here) day".

Radio

• In Another Case of Milton Jones, Milton makes a throwaway mention of the entire nation of Britain pretending to forget the Queen's official birthday. Despite this, a later episode shows that they forget his birthday every year.

Theater

• In Disney's Believe, by the end of the show, Dr. Greenaway is able to properly celebrate Sophia's birthday with tons of Disney characters and gives her a fabulous cake and presents.
• In Pokémon Live!, Misty is upset with Ash because he never took her to the movies for her birthday as he promised. At the end, he makes it up for it by giving her the Diamond Badge he just won.

Video Games

• In Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!, Blue Bear of the Brothers Bear is blue not only literally, but figuratively, because he thinks the rest of the brothers forgot his birthday. Blizzard Bear did actually remember and already bought a present for Blue, but he's been preparing to summit the snowy mountain of K3 and couldn't get to Blue's house in time, so he asks the Kongs to deliver the present for him. Blue finds the bowling ball inside the present too heavy for himself and gives it to the Kongs, but he's happy that he received a present anyway and cheers up on subsequent visits.
• In Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4, Obito, Kakashi & Minato pretend they forgot about Rin's birthday so they can surprise her later. Having heard that the boys forgot Rin's birthday from said girl, a raging and furious Kushina comes and asks the boys to explain themselves. Minato tries to calm Kushina, to no avail. The fight starts, Kushina is in permanent Awakening mode.

Web Original

• In Echo Chamber, Tom forgot Dana's birthday. Hilarity Ensues. Zac did not forget. This is not necessarily a good thing.

Western Animation

• The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin: Happens in the aptly named "Teddy's Birthday." While too nice to outright say it, Teddy spends much of the episode subtly dropping hints as to why this day of all days would be important, but fails to get any recognition from his friends, including his oldest one Grubby. Resigned to a normal dayz the Trio travel to a plain where Gimmick claims is a fascinating rock outcropping he wants to study, only to find the Jungle and Surf Grunges have there. Soon they're joined by the Wooly Whatsit, the Fobs, the Nogbert Royal Family, and various others, with Grubby suggesting they start up a baseball game to amuse themselves. When the game ends with Teddy's team victorious, Leota suggest the game ball be given to Teddy to help him remember his surprise birthday party.
• The Angry Birds Toons episode "Another Birthday" featured a pig who tried to remind everyone that today was his birthday, but all the pigs ignored him or didn't care. At the end of the episode, the pig unhappily returns home for the night, only to find the other pigs throwing a surprise birthday celebration for him.
• An episode of Archer has the titular character (a super-spy) get offended when his co-workers seemingly forget about his birthday. The sub-plot only lasts about five minutes, though, as it's quickly revealed that they did remember and his boss/mother got him a Cool Car as a gift.
• In As Told by Ginger, Ginger's closest friend, Macie Lightfoot, has a 13th birthday that really is forgotten by her incredibly absent-minded parents. Although they are truly upset that they forgot such an important event, they then proceed to give her a birthday that caters more to small children than to their daughter's appropriate age (even giving her a swing set which she was years beyond). Despite this, Macie still thinks it's wonderful gift because she's just happy that they acknowledged her birthday.
• The aptly named Bob the Builder episode Bob's Birthday has the crew pretend not to know it's his birthday so as to throw him a surprise party.
• In one episode each of Captain N: The Game Master and the children's program Today's Special, a character (Mega Man and Scott the living mannequin, respectively) feels left out because they are not truly alive and therefore cannot have a birthday. Special surprises are prepared for each; in the Mega Man example, it means a chance to become a living being.
• One episode of Care Bears (1980s) has this as its B-plot, with Birthday Bear lamenting that his friends have forgotten his birthday even as they seek to help out a Lonely Rich Kid whose birthday party goes unattended because his wealth has alienated him from his peers. By episode's end, though, it turns out that not only did the other Care Bears and Cousins not forget Birthday Bear's birthday, they were planning a surprise party for him all along.
• Code Lyoko. The premise: About three days after it happened, Yumi gives Ulrich the cold shoulder. Odd tells Ulrich this too late. Ulrich tries to make up with Yumi on Lyoko, failing, but the ending helps remedy this. Ulrich gives Yumi a gift. The gift ends up being Kiwi's, though.
• In one episode of Doc McStuffins, Doc and the toys threw a surprise party for Hallie to celebrate her birthday and show how much they appreciated her hard work. Doc asked Hallie to take off her glasses so they could finish setting up for the party without her seeing.
• Dragon Tales has the episode "Ord's Unhappy Birthday" is about this. When Ord is about to give up, he goes to Quetzal, who steers him to the teahouse where Ord finds his birthday party waiting for him. Ord is so surprised that he stands at the door with his mouth hanging open.
• Elena of Avalor episode "Island of Youth" has the royal family needlessly pulling this on Esteban. First off, it's the first time the family's been together in 41 years, so pretending to forget his birthday is sort of cold-hearted. Secondly, Elena's distraction to allow the others to finish setting up the party is to take Esteban sailing, which is an activity he enjoys. She could have simply told him that the sailing trip was her gift to him, while keeping the rest of the celebration a surprise and sparing him the angst.
• This is the essential plot of "By Invitation Only" from Ella the Elephant, in which Ella's friends and family all put together a surprise party for her and try desperately to hide it. Though when Ella tells her mother that everyone forgot her birthday, her mother gets her to admit that she never actually asked her friends if they had forgotten it.
• The Fairly Oddparents:
  • Played with this in "Boys in the Band"; when he forgives his parents for forgetting his birthday, they confusingly state that they didn't and that his birthday is tomorrow, before wishing him a "happy almost birthday." A special called 77 Secrets of The Fairly OddParents Revealed would retcon this a few seasons later to state that Timmy and Chip Skylark did share a birthday, meaning it was that day. Though considering Timmy's parents, you could argue that they got the day wrong in that first instance as well.
  • The trope was seemingly inverted in "Birthday Bashed". It's once again Timmy's birthday and this time he has to hide it from Jorgen to avoid losing his fairies, since he's getting to the age where most kids start becoming too old to need them. After several attempts to hide what appeared to be supplies his parents got to celebrate his big day, by the end, it's revealed they were celebrating another thing and really had forgotten Timmy's birthday again. That, among other things, is held by Jorgen as a reason to believe Timmy's life was still miserable enough that he'll still need fairies into his teenage years.
• The Flumps: Happens in an episode of this UK pre-school stop-motion series. Unusually, it's shown from the point of view of the rest of the family, trying desperately to conceal the truth from Grandpa Flump. The educational purpose of the episode seemed to be explaining synonyms for "keeping a secret".
• He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983): Orko, of all characters, believes everyone has forgotten his birthday and nearly runs away. ^note While it certainly wouldn't have been in character for He-Man to do so, it would have been far more entertaining.
• The Johnny Test episode "Bathtime for Johnny" has an A-plot of Johnny adamantly refusing to take a bath, causing a perpetual stink around him, and a B-plot of a dejected Dukey thinking Johnny has forgotten his birthday. In the end, it's revealed that Johnny wasn't taking a bath because needed to do something to coerce his family into letting him use his sisters' Construction Drones to build an indoor water park for him and Dukey to celebrate in — a huge upgrade over the kiddie pool Dukey himself requested.
• In an episode of KaBlam!, Henry and June celebrate their birthdays (since they were drawn on the same day, they were celebrating theirs on the same day). June gets Henry a remote-controlled car, but Henry forgot June's birthday! He makes up for it in the end, though.
• King of the Hill:
  • In the episode "Hank's Dirty Laundry," Bobby assumes his parents are buying him a birthday present while shopping for a dryer. (His birthday is a month away.) He later, on a different day, assumes his birthday party is that day. (It isn't.) He bemoans to Luanne that he "can't believe my parents forgot my birthday." Luanne says that "they've still got a whole month to remember." Hank and Peggy's new dryer is then delivered and Bobby believes it's his birthday present and loves it.
  • Another episode has Dale buy a weather balloon. Bill asks if it is his birthday. Hank corrects him, but only to realize his birthday was in fact last week. He first apologizes before wishing him a "happy belated birthday".
• An episode of Kipper, an animated show targeted at young audiences about a dog by that name, features Kipper and his friends throwing a surprise party for their friend Jake, but him thinking that they forgot his birthday.
• This happens near the end of The Little Rascals episode "The Case of the Puzzled Pals", when Spanky explains that the now-broken microscope was a gift intended for the surprise birthday party he's planned at the treehouse.
  Alfalfa: But whose birthday is it, Spanky?
  Spanky: It's your birthday, Alfalfa!
  Alfalfa: Mine? Of course! That's the one clue I overlooked.
• "Happy Birthday Llama Llama" from Llama Llama has a fairly obvious forgotten birthday plot going on from the beginning when Llama's excited about his birthday, but it seems like none of his friends want to play with him. Fairly obvious to the viewer, anyway. Llama was caught off-guard because he had been told his party wasn't until later in the week. Nevertheless, Llama's friends actually chide him for not realizing what they were up to even though they were obviously leaving him out of something, which they would normally never do.
• Looney Tunes has a variation in the 1967 cartoon "Fiesta Fiasco." Daffy Duck finds out Speedy Gonzales and his mice amigos are having a party to which he is not invited, and attempts to crash it by creating a storm cloud to rain on it... only to find out in the end it was a surprise party for his birthday, which he forgot about.
• The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse episode "Minnie's Birthday" has Mickey and the gang plan a surprise birthday party for Minnie, but when they constantly keep it a secret so she doesn't ruin the surprise, she thinks they forgot it.
• Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures episode "It's Scrappy's Birthday" had Scrappy run away from Mouseville when he assumes everyone forgot his birthday. He eventually returns home and discovers to his joy that everyone was just pretending to forget his birthday as they prepared a surprise party.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic inverts the trope in the episode "Party of One." Pinkie briefly loses it when the others drop excuses not to attend her spur-of-the-moment party. It's only at the end that Pinkie realizes it's her own birthday, and the others had made plans to throw her a surprise party well in advance.
• In an episode of The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Pooh (sticky with honey) accidentally pulls several pages off Rabbit's calendar, leading Rabbit to mistakenly believe it's his birthday and misinterpret his friends' activities as preparations for a surprise party. Angst ensues when he concludes they've forgotten, but fortunately there's a party on his actual birthday the next week.
• The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries episode "Happy Birthday, Scooby-Doo" had Scrappy, Shaggy, and Daphne pretend to forget Scooby's birthday to surprise him.
• The short-lived English cartoon series The Pondles had an episode in which the main character, Pip, is led to believe that everyone had forgotten his birthday — though Pip, when hints don't work, breaks tradition by actually telling everyone he meets what day it is. Then they enthusiastically wish him a happy birthday but regret that they're too busy to celebrate it. Of course, what they're busy with is preparing his surprise party.
• Quack Pack had such an episode. Instead of Donald Duck getting depressed because Huey, Dewey and Louie "forgot" his birthday, however, Donald gets incredibly angry at them because he thinks they're doing something illegal behind his back. They get sent to a correctional facility as a result.
• Roger Ramjet had one. By the end, the American Eagles kids surprised Roger during a nap that scared him to jump out the window. Everybody came to the surprise party even his arch-rival Lance Crossfire, and his arch-nemeses Noodles Romanoff and the No-Goods who rigged his birthday cake to explode on Ramjet, harmlessly, because Ramjet's birthday also falls on April Fools' Day.
• In The Simpsons episode "Moe'N'a Lisa" Homer forgets he made plans to take Moe fishing on his birthday. Moe is devastated until Lisa, who sees a rich artistic side to Moe, decides to write about him for school.
• Beast Boy's teammates didn't forget his birthday in Teen Titans Go!. They just plain ignored it. Robin, Cyborg, and Starfire hate birthday parties for various reasons (such as hating having to fake being amused at people opening their presents or being grossed out by people blowing out candles) and refuse to give him a party. They are forced to throw one when Raven reveals that he'll literally die if he doesn't get a party.
• In an episode of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987), this happens to Michaelangelo. He spends much of the episode depressed and getting into scrapes on his own, only to find himself celebrated when he returns to the sewer.
• On Total Drama World Tour, Cody is so used to people forgetting his birthday that he forgets it... but Sierra doesn't.
• The Transformers: Rescue Bots episode "Little White Lies", Chief Burns' children pretend to forget that it was his birthday when they were trying to make him a surprise party and order his favorite cake. Unfortunately, this "little white lie" has perilous results.
• VeggieTales:
  • This was the main plot of "Lenny and the Lost Birthday", where the main characters thinks everyone has forgotten his birthday. The twist is that it's not his birthday because of leap year.
  • While not technically a birthday episode (though in real life, it's for 20th anniversary of Larry-Boy's debut appearance), the VeggieTales in the House episode "The Big Secret" has the heroes being busy with their own things rather than spending time with Larry-Boy after defeating Motato. Larry-Boy later suspects his team going against him when he was spying on them. They were busy preparing for his party for his hundredth capture of Motato.
• In the Wild West C.O.W.-Boys of Moo Mesa episode "Another Fine Mesa", Cowlorado Kid, Dakota Dude, and Lilli Bovine pretended to forget that it was the tenth anniversary of Moo Montana being marshal, only for Moo to go back to his hometown Miller Glen.
• In "Happy Birthday, Dog!" on WordWorld, Dog believes everyone has forgotten his birthday, but they're planning a surprise party.
• In The World of Strawberry Shortcake (1980), some of her friends do forget Strawberry's birthday, but even she doesn't seem aware that it's her special day (to be fair, Strawberry's said to be turning six). Once they're reminded and start to arrange a party, they deliberately keep it a secret from her and turn down her lunch invitation so they can set it up; she thinks no one likes her anymore, but is directed by the narrator to the party when he can't bear to see her that sad. Notably, this plot isn't the whole focus of the story, but instead sets up the circumstances that allow the evil Purple Pieman to force the kids to give him all their berries (he sells them a magic watering can they give to her as a gift — it appears empty but generates water when you tip it. It's just that he's the only one who knows how to stop the flow...)
• In “It’s My Purr-ty” of Strawberry Shortcake: Berry in the Big City, Custard notices it’s her birthday, and tries to get Strawberry’s attention, who just brushes her off so she can finish an important cupcake order. Saddened, Custard ends up moping around the Berryworks, getting the attention of the other pets, who proceed to inform their owners about what happened. When Strawberry is confronted by everyberry, she immediately realizes what happened and points out Custard’s birthday was actually tomorrow, and the cupcakes she was baking were for a surprise party, even having cat kibble as the toppings. Custard, though embarrassed, is happy Strawberry didn’t forget, and everyberry decides to celebrate her birthday a day early.
• The Wrong Trousers begins with Gromit's birthday. Once Wallace comes downstairs for breakfast, he makes no mention of it at first, and seems completely oblivious to the musical birthday card that Gromit put on the table. Then he accidentally lets slip that the presents he bought weren't cheap, and moments later, Wallace's first gift to Gromit rolls in by model train. Unfortunately, the present is an embarrassing collar and leash, and things only get worse for Gromit from there.

---